Standing in front of the Radville Marian Health Centre on Wednesday morning, NDP Health Critic Keith Jorgenson labelled the current state of rural healthcare in Saskatchewan a “summer of chaos,” as he addressed the 43 times the facility’s emergency room has been forced to close this year.
Jorgenson, who was in town as part of his Critical Condition Rural Healthcare Tour, said he was “shocked but not surprised” by the number of disruptions so far this year in Radville, placing the blame on the provincial government for what he called the bungling of rural health.
His sharpest criticism was aimed at the province’s communication strategy and recent claims of system-wide improvement.
In a statement to Discover Weyburn late last week, Rural and Remote Health Minister Lori Carr highlighted a 28 per cent reduction in service disruption days across the province over the past year.
“My reply to that is, I think that's garbage,” Jorgenson stated. “She should ask the people in Radville, Kipling, Broadview – we could keep listing communities on and on – if they feel that health care is improving in their communities.”
The ongoing closures in Radville, at least 14 due to nurse shortages and 14 to doctor shortages, have continued despite the implementation of a virtual physician program in late 2024. That program, intended to mitigate staffing gaps, requires trained staff on-site to function.
Jorgenson called the government’s reliance on this program and its failure to properly communicate closures, incredibly reckless and incredibly dangerous.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority previously confirmed to Discover Weyburn that it no longer posts short-term disruptions on its website, citing low traffic. Instead, the SHA says it relies on local municipalities to share information on social media and other municipalities.
Jorgenson called this delegation of responsibility unacceptable.
“I would say to Minister Carr and the other Sask Party MLAs, do your job,” Jorgenson said. “It is not a municipality's job to run a health care system." He described a conversation with a senior in Kipling who worried about not having Facebook to check if his local hospital was open.
“Can you imagine your loved ones having a heart attack, and you say, ‘Honey, check Facebook to see if our hospital's open’? That's bizarre.”
In her statement, Minister Carr, who is also the MLA for the Estevan-Big Muddy constituency, which includes Radville, acknowledged there are challenges within the system. She pointed to the government’s Health Human Resources Action Plan and the recent creation of 77 new permanent full-time positions in 30 rural communities as proof of the government's commitment to stabilizing services.
Jorgenson argued that if the government is embarrassed by the number of closures, it should focus on fixing the problem by retaining staff.
“They always talk about recruitment, but they never talk about retention,” he said. “I think the way that you solve retention is to talk to local voices, talk to local health care workers about what they need.”
Ultimately, Jorgenson had a direct message for the community at the heart of the issue.
“My message is to the people in Radville: you deserve better. I think we all deserve better than this. We deserve a hospital that's open, close to where we live, that provides us with good quality health care. And we deserve a government that tells us when facilities are closed.”