I recently spent some time in a hospital emergency department.
More specifically, I was in the ER waiting room because no rooms were available.
It didn’t occur to me when I went to the city hospital that the department might be closed.
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However, in rural parts of Canada, that is reality on any given day. We know this first-hand or anecdotally.
The Globe and Mail recently reported on rural ER closures across the country. Staffing issues are at the root of disruptions and closures.
The project undertaken by three reporters asked provinces for data on ER closures since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Some, such as Manitoba, provided solid information showing that about two-thirds of the province’s ERs had closed at least once.
Others, such as British Columbia, provided incomplete information months after an access to information request, according to a Globe column.
Efforts to take the pressure off some city ERs, such as Regina’s Urgent Care Centre, have worked only partially. This particular facility has never been fully staffed, operates at reduced hours and was actually closed for a full day earlier this month.
Long wait times in overcrowded emergency rooms continue.
In Saskatchewan, there is a long history of wanting to keep small-town hospitals, and their ER departments, open. The conversion of 52 rural hospitals to health centres by the then-NDP government still rankles people 30 years afterward.
Most emergencies coming into small-town ERs are moved along to a tertiary centre as soon as possible.
In the most extreme cases of trauma or illness, a call to STARS Air Ambulance or similar service is made.
It would be an interesting statistic to know how many use their ERs as a walk-in clinic because they have no family doctor.
Still, if you arrived at a hospital and found the ER closed, what would you think? Or do?
The Saskatchewan opposition NDP continually hammers on the Saskatchewan Party government about rural emergency rooms.
Last week it held news conferences and issued press releases, such as the one on July 15 that claimed a “horrific series” of rural ER closures in recent weeks.
It cited people arriving at Kamsack only to find a notice telling them to drive 50 kilometres to Canora, or nearly an hour to Yorkton or Preeceville, and listed recent closures in 14 other small communities.
“We don’t have to settle for this — we can demand better,” said associate health critic Keith Jorgenson.
We can, but it seems to come down to finding workers for these small facilities.
If it were that simple, wouldn’t it have happened by now?
