According to Clarke, temporary emergency room closures continue to create uncertainty for families across the province, particularly in rural communities where alternate facilities may be located hours away. “When you’re heading to your local emergency room with your child, your spouse or a parent, you don’t know whether that emergency room is going to be open or closed,” he said.
Clarke’s proposed Bill 606, officially known as The Provincial Health Authority (ER Closure Right-to-Know) Amendment Act, would require emergency room closures to be publicly reported through a website or other electronic platform within one hour of a shutdown.
He pointed to existing government notification systems such as Saskatchewan’s Highway Hotline and SaskPower’s outage map as examples of how real-time information is already being provided for other public services. “We have apps, we have smartphones, we have websites,” Clarke said. “Why can’t we have a map that shows when a local emergency room is open or closed?”
Clarke said Saskatchewan Health Authority officials already have access to internal real-time closure information and argued the public should have access to the same data. The bill passed second reading in the legislature before ultimately failing to receive final approval.
While the Saskatchewan Health Authority currently publishes service disruption updates twice daily, Clarke argues the current system does not provide information quickly enough for residents facing urgent situations. The SHA has stated it continues to work toward improved public notification systems.
One issue Clarke highlighted was the growing reliance on local social media pages to communicate emergency room disruptions.
Some communities have begun sharing closure notices on Facebook after receiving information from local facilities. However, Clarke believes that approach leaves gaps for residents who do not use social media or visitors travelling through rural Saskatchewan. “If you’re not on Facebook, then you’re not noticing it,” he said.
He pointed to travelers and tourists who may not be connected to local community pages but still need access to health-care information while visiting the area. “For people who are not from the community, they need a simple website or app where that information is available.”
Although much of the discussion centered on Bill 606, Clarke repeatedly emphasized that improved reporting would not solve the underlying challenges facing Saskatchewan’s health-care system. “This is kind of a band-aid solution,” he said. “We need to actually staff those rural hospitals.”
Clarke linked emergency room disruptions to continuing shortages of doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals throughout the province.
He said concerns raised during the Saskatchewan NDP’s “Your Care, Your Say” consultation frequently include physician shortages, difficulty accessing primary care providers and increasing pressure on emergency departments. The consultation has been used to gather feedback for future health-care policy proposals.
According to Clarke, many residents delay seeking treatment because they lack access to a family physician or nurse practitioner, resulting in additional pressure on hospitals when health issues become more severe.
He also expressed concern about the retention of front-line health-care workers, citing ongoing contract negotiations and staffing challenges. “When you are a nurse or a lab tech, and you haven’t had a contract in four years, that doesn’t send a message that you’re valued,” he said.
While Bill 606 did not become law, Clarke believes the debate generated awareness and helped push the province toward providing more information about service disruptions.
He said the Saskatchewan NDP will continue developing health-care proposals ahead of the next provincial election, with much of that work focusing on improving access to primary care and rebuilding confidence in rural health services. “We’re the birthplace of Medicare,” Clarke said. “We should be leaders in health care. We need to get back to that.”
