According to Health Minister Dustin Duncan and others in his Saskatchewan Party government, there is a world of difference between the isolated problems of city nursing homes and those in rural nursing homes.
Truly, there are big problems in the cities.
Take Regina's Santa Maria Seniors' Centre where the death of former 74-year-old resident Margaret Warholm last year has now been referred by Duncan to the Provincial Ombudsman for investigation.
The malnourished woman weighed a mere 89 pounds when she died, her back covered by a giant bedsore. And while the Warholm case was extreme, it does not appear to be an isolated problem at Santa Maria.
Requesting that their names not be used or their faces shows for fear of being fired, three care workers came to the legislature last week and said short staff is a rampant problem.
The three say staffing shortages have meant residents often only get baths once every two weeks and sometimes having to wear bandages soiled in urine and feces because there is no LPN available to change them.
"We've always been overworked I feel," said one of the workers who asked to be called Sue, adding the staffing shortage has only intensified.
"We never, ever worked short. Lately it's just an everyday occurrence."
Another worker, who asked to be called Anna also spoke of inadequate food.
"The food is like leftover food on a daily basis," she said. "What they have for breakfast, they're going to have it for lunch. And when they have something for lunch, the left over is for supper. Residents don't eat that, there is lots of waste."
Other nursing homes in Regina and Saskatoon have reported similar incidents - notwithstanding Premier Brad Wall's insistence that homes like Santa Maria have received an 81-per-cent funding increase since the Sask. Party came to office in 2007.
And Sask. Party MLAs bristle at suggestions from the NDP that this has become the norm in nursing homes through the province.
Even the measured, seldom partisan Duncan insists that what we saw in the Warholm case is isolated and that rural seniors in particular have received loving care from their communities.
To a large extent, this is likely true. Smaller nursing homes in smaller communities can be more homey. Undoubtedly, staff who have known these people all their lives do go the extra mile.
But that does mean that there are not problems in rural settings as well.
In fact, the report released a year ago from the health regions' chief executive officers' tour suggested there were plenty of concerns heard from family, patients and staff.
For example, at the Diamond Lodge in the Heartland district, family members hold the CEO the food was cold and "not worth a damn." In Kyle, complaints were of staffing shortages and only getting the basics done.
Staffing shortages were a problem virtually everywhere. At Saskatchewan Park Lodge in the Kelsey Trail district, family members told the CEO that residents are hesitant to ask for anything because staff is so busy.
And recently at the legislature, the NDP raised the case of 93-year-old Ituna resident Emily Krushelnicki. Despite having congestive heart failure and a doctor's recommendation she be admitted to Pioneer Lodge, she could only get a "transition bed."
Krushelnicki was moved to Foam Lake and her transitional bed in Ituna sat empty for three weeks, indicating bureaucratic problems are not just reserved for the cities.
Incidents like Margaret Warholm worthy of investigation are isolated. And perhaps the source of such problems like staffing shortages are more intense in the cities.
But nursing home issues - particularly those of staffing shortages - are every where in Saskatchewan.
It would be wrong for Duncan and Wall to claim otherwise.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
