REGINA, SASKATOON — Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill was facing more questions about healthcare service disruptions on Monday, with the latest being about HealthLine 811.
It was reported by Saskatchewan Health Authority on Saturday that HealthLine 811 was unavailable as of 4:55 p.m. that day. SHA said in a social media post they were aware of the issue and working to resume service.
Service was restored a couple of hours later, according to the province. At a news conference in Regina, Cockrill did not have much more to add about exactly what happened.
“We don't have a summary yet in terms of what the specific reason for the outage was,“ Cockrill said.
“In a world that's increasingly virtual or telehealth-based, 811 is a pretty significant part of our health care system now. So luckily the outage was only a couple hours. We'll be working with the Ministry to understand, the SHA, to understand maybe what we missed.
He also encouraged anyone who wasn’t able to get through to seek out care with your primary care provider, or to call 811 now that it was back running.
There have also been stories about disruptions to ER services, including reduced hours at Saskatoon City Hospital and closures in rural hospital ERs at Tisdale and Porcupine Plain.
When asked about those Cockrill pointed to comments from Premier Scott Moe on the issue last week in Saskatoon.
At that media availability Moe had said he would be asking both the Health Minister and the Saskatchewan Health Authority “as to why” the disruptions were happening.
“What do we need to change operationally? Are there things that we can change that will help us with some of these disruptions?” said Moe. “And ultimately, the goal, as you saw in our Speech from the Throne, is to provide access to Saskatchewan people and families, access to a (medical healthcare professional and access to surgeries when they need it. And with the disruptions, there is some hindering that access and we need to do better.”
In relation to those comments from the Premier, Cockrill said Monday that he had a conversation with Premier Moe as well as several meetings with Andrew Will, CEO at the Saskatchewan Health Authority, “saying to the SHA, ‘listen, these services have to be available in Saskatoon for the residents of that city.’”
“Really, Saskatoon is a pretty significant tertiary centre that serves a whole big section of the province. The challenges at Saskatoon City Hospital, I expect they will persist for a little while longer as we stabilize staffing. We've had several meetings, the SHA has, with the emergency department physicians over the last couple of weeks. I'm going to be meeting with emergency department physicians in Saskatoon in the next coming weeks to understand the challenges that they're seeing. And again, it's all about improving patient flow through our three emergency departments in Saskatoon.”
Cockrill adds that he has “been pushing the SHA over the last several weeks and months that we need to find ways to improve patient flow so that we have fewer people sitting in a hallway receiving care. I'm looking forward to what the SHA is going to start working on here in the next few weeks to address some of those challenges.”
The minister said that it's a “reasonable expectation to go to a hospital and be seen in a reasonable amount of time, get the care that you need, and not in a hallway… I think we're going to be making some progress here very soon on that.”
At an NDP media availability in Saskatoon on Monday, Opposition Health Critic Vicki Mowat slammed the government over the various health care disruptions being seen, in particular the latest one involving HealthLine 811.
“It’s incredibly concerning to us that people are relying on this service and it was unavailable,” said Mowat.
“So when the alternative to phoning 811 is to go to the emergency room it is very concerning, when we have situations (where) Saskatoon City Hospital is reducing their hours, and we know that in Saskatoon it’s incredibly difficult for people to get access to a family doctor.”
Mowat said this all continues to boil down to a “lack of frontline staff” and a “failed health care recruitment and retention plan.” She once again called for a need to invest in frontline staff, instead of “inflated bureaucracy which we continue to see.”
With files from Jon Perez.
