REGINA - Opposition New Democrats were sounding the alarm on rural emergency rooms again, this time focusing on the lack of doctors on site.
At a news conference at the Legislature Tuesday, Keith Jorgenson, the NDP associate shadow minister for Health, blasted the Sask Party government for having emergency rooms open without a single doctor present.
He pointed to Watrous Hospital opening after approximately 40 service disruptions this summer, but “without an actual physical doctor present on site.”
In Davidson, “the hospital at 4 p.m. is going to be closing, and then we'll be on rotating virtual care for the rest of the week.”
In Kipling, which Jorgenson noted was closed for 21 straight days this month, he said it has opened with no physical doctor on site.
Meanwhile, Maple Creek had a service disruption that was announced on their Facebook on the weekend, but which was “later rescinded when they informed people via Facebook that SHA had found a virtual doctor.”
Jorgenson pointed to three issues.
“One is hospitals not being open, endangering the lives of rural residents of this province because there are no hospitals close to where they live in case of emergency. The second issue is the SaskParty government opening hospitals with no physical doctor present. I'm going to say that again. Hospitals being open with no doctor on site. It's absolutely insane.”
The third issue, he said, was that the government was “communicating none of this to the general public.”
“The only way that we know about any of this is either via Facebook or communicating directly with frontline health care workers. The government is doing nothing to inform rural residents of this province of potentially dangerous situations that they face. It's absolutely crazy.”
Jorgenson referred to the whole situation as “the Sask Party's iceberg of incompetence.”
“You know, an iceberg, you know, they say you can see about 10 per cent of it and 90 per cent you can't see. So we've had absolute chaos through rural Saskatchewan in the healthcare system. And so part of that we can see, and part of that there's a lot of unknowns because the Sask Party isn't telling us what's happening.”
He pointed to how he found out about the Kipling situation as one such example of a lack of information being shared from the province on what exactly is going on. “So, my understanding I know from talking to a frontline health care worker, the Kipling hospital apparently was open yesterday with a virtual doctor. My understanding is there may be an actual physical doctor on site. I'm not certain.”
Jorgenson called it a “tremendously dangerous situation if you try and imagine yourself in a car driving down a rural highway and there's a medical emergency and you're trying to guess where should I drive? What hospital might be open? If the hospital's open, is there a doctor there?”
As for what the Opposition wants to see happen, Jorgenson called for the government to “immediately communicate what facilities are open, what facilities are closed, which facilities have doctors, and which do not.”
They also wanted them to come up with a collaborative plan for the long term, that “recruits health care workers to rural Saskatchewan and helps them stay and improves the system in the long term.”
In a statement, the government said it "recognizes the importance of having accessible emergency room services available in rural and remote communities when they need them," and will continue to work with health partners in all communities.
The province also pointed to the Saskatchewan Health Authority implementing several strategies including the virtual physician program, Point-of-Care Testing and health-care human resource initiatives." They also continue to point to the work under the Health Human Resources Action Plan, including the Rural Physician Incentive Program of up to $200,000 over five years.
In particular the province's statement pushed back against criticism of the virtual physician program.
"The virtual physician program enables safe and effective patient assessment, triage, and treatment during periods when local physicians are unavailable. We have been hearing from rural physicians, local leadership, and community members that the Virtual Physician program is beneficial and that it should be expanded to additional communities in need of emergency room physician coverage. Since launching first launching in August of 2023, the Virtual Physician program has prevented 58 ER disruptions in Watrous, 115 ER disruptions in Maple Creek, 126 ER disruptions in Davidson and 356 ER disruptions in Kipling.
"The lost and reckless NDP have indicated that this is a program that they would shut down, which would put additional pressures on some of our rural communities."
