Rural residents 'shocked' ERS will still be closed

Step protects the vulnerable even as virus rates fall, says SHA head

Those who depend on rural emergency rooms are alarmed to see them close just as COVID-19 case numbers flatten in most of Saskatchewan.

Six rural emergency rooms had already been temporarily shuttered by Friday. Six more are following, including at the Arcola Health Centre, which is closing down emergency care on Thursday.

Judy Naylen depends on that care. She has “flare ups” of asthma that periodically force her to drive 10 minutes to the Arcola Health Centre in southeast Saskatchewan. The other options are bad. She said it would take 25 minutes for paramedics to get to her farm, and at least 40 minutes to drive to the nearest hospital in Estevan or Redvers.

“My throat swells,” she said, “and there’s a good possibility that I wouldn’t make it there.”

Naylen said she’s “shocked” to learn the Saskatchewan Health Authority is moving forward with plans to temporarily close emergency services in Arcola when there are zero COVID-19 cases across the southern region.

“Why is this going forward?” she asked. “Why would we not wait until there’s a surge in cases?”

SHA CEO Scott Livingstone responded during a press conference Wednesday, saying that the closures were announced “weeks ago” and involved consultations with communities.

In integrated facilities that provide long-term care, the closures are necessary to protect vulnerable residents from the risk of infection, according to Livingstone. More generally, the SHA needs to “maintain capacity for COVID surges and outbreaks as they arise throughout the pandemic.”

Part of that plan involves freeing up beds in urban hospitals by moving patients who don’t need a high level of care to smaller centres.

But Naylen remains frightened. She sent a letter to Premier Scott Moe, warning that a 45-minute drive “feels like an eternity” when she can’t breathe.

She said many in the community share her worries. “There’s 700 people here who depend on it, and that’s not even the surrounding area.”

The SHA has long touted a pan- Saskatchewan approach that allows it to dispatch resources to outbreak zones — and there’s still a troubling outbreak in La Loche.

The province reported a total of 149 active cases in the far north as of Wednesday.

But there were just four new cases reported that afternoon, the third straight day of single digit numbers. That’s far fewer than at the height of the outbreak in the La Loche area. Premier Scott Moe argued that the situation there appears to be improving. “What you’re doing is working,” Moe told residents.

But the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) is questioning the province’s testing strategy in the La Loche area. Officials had previously said that 19 mobile testing units would fan out across the community to reach every single person. That isn’t happening.

SUN president Tracy Zambory heard from a nurse in La Loche that there were only two mobile teams as of Tuesday. It leaves her wondering whether the province’s case numbers in northern Saskatchewan are accurate.

“There is no mass testing,” she said. “They are not going to every house. They’re only going to referred houses where someone is symptomatic and those referred houses are coming from public health.”

According to Zambory’s information, nurses are overburdened.

“They are working very hard,” she said. “It is very, very busy.”

Livingstone responded that more than 35 additional staff have joined the fight against COVID -19 in the La Loche area, including those working in mobile units and drive-thru testing. The SHA is still following a door-to-door strategic testing approach that meets demand, according to a statement.

Livingstone said testing efforts have already reached 200 of 750 households in the community.

But he acknowledged that there are not 19 mobile units in La Loche. Livingstone said the area’s medical health officer pointed to a need to “change the strategy” as more people in the community began to stay at home.

He was adamant that the change in approach did not affect testing capacity, which he said “has never been at risk.”

“We are still and continue to swab, and are committed to going to every single household in that community,” Livingstone said.