Saskatchewan hospitals report 1,305 service disruptions since 2019, data shows

Rural Saskatchewan hospitals have continued to experience service disruptions daily over the past five years.

Data from the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), obtained by the provincial NDP through a freedom of information request, shows that between August 2019 and May 2024, there were more than 200,000 hours of healthcare blackouts at 58 hospitals and health centres, not including Saskatoon and Regina.

"We believe that this is a management issue on the government's part for how they are allocating and treating workers," NDP critic for rural and remote health Jared Clarke said. "There's enough money in the healthcare budget to prioritize providing the supports and services that Saskatchewan people need when they need it in their communities. It's time to get Saskatchewan out of last place."

This equates to a total of 8,613 days of lost service for patients with 1,305 distinct closures in total.

During the nearly five-year stretch, emergency rooms were hit the hardest – recording 617 distinct closures amounting to 4,299 lost days.

Basic radiology and laboratory services had 127 closures totaling 844 lost days, the data showed.

• Get the CTV News app for Saskatoon area breaking news alerts and top stories 

The disruptions worsened dramatically in 2022, rising from 163 in 2021 to 399. That number increased to 455 in 2023. Between January and May of this year, there have been 122 closures.

Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) CEO Andrew Will said reasons for disruptions vary from a "gap in physician coverage," to sick calls to a lack of staffing or resources in certain areas.

Will said the SHA is taking an innovative approach to address the challenges, which includes virtual physician coverage and point-of-care testing -- which allows staff to conduct certain tests when lab services are unavailable -- as a way of keeping more hospitals and healthcare centres open.

"Certainly our goal as the Saskatchewan Health Authority is to provide service as close to home as we possibly can, and we never want to see an interruption in any of our facilities, in hospitals throughout the province," Will said.

According to the data, Herbert has seen 971 days worth of service blackouts, more than any other community.

The Northwest Health Facility in Meadow Lake has reported 195 service blackouts at its site -- roughly one every nine days during the time period.

The Dr. F.H Wigmore Regional Hospital in Moose Jaw, the province's fourth largest city, has seen a total of 231 days where radiography and laboratory services were not available.

"I think it starts by changing the culture in healthcare. One from fear and division under this Sask. Party government and really working with healthcare professionals as partners to improve the system so that Saskatchewan people have access to the care they need when they need it," Clarke said

Earlier this year the province stopped updating its service disruption webpage. Clarke said that data should be publicly and readily available so people aren't going to larger centres unnecessarily.

"Community members don't know when their hospital is all of a sudden going to be closed," he said. "And so you literally pull up to your hospital, your health care center, and look on the on the door to find a piece of paper that says, 'nope, not today.'"

Will declined to comment on why service disruptions aren't posted regularly on the website and when that practice stopped. The latest available update on the service disruption webpage was posted in February.

At a separate announcement Friday, the province touted its health human resource action plan, which Rural and Remote Health Minister Tim McLeod said has seen more than 1,700 people hired since it was launched two years ago.

"Since we had the honor to form government 2007, Saskatchewan has more than a thousand additional physicians in our province, that's a 62 per cent growth in physicians in our province over a period of time where our population grew by 23 per cent," McLeod said.

The province acknowledged there is difficulty retaining and attracting staff, but this issue isn't exclusive to Saskatchewan.

"We're ensuring and focusing on any disruptions that we may be experiencing in Saskatchewan, like many other provinces across Canada, as this is not only in Saskatchewan where we are having these challenges, are temporary in nature.," Premier Scott Moe said Friday.