CARLA BECK’S TEAM DEMANDS ANSWERS AS REGINA URGENT CARE CENTRE CONTINUES TO CLOSE EARLY WITH LITTLE WARNING, TURN SICK PATIENTS AWAY WHEN OPEN

Urgent Care Centre Will Reduce Hours — Again — Due To Staffing Issues This Long Weekend
REGINA – Carla Beck's team has written to Scott Moe’s failing Health Minister demanding immediate answers after learning patients are regularly being turned away from the Regina Urgent Care Centre because it is operating at maximum capacity.

The same centre, which the Sask. Party promised to operate 24/7 to ease pressure on city emergency rooms, will be closed early yet again this long weekend for the 36th time this year.

In a letter sent Friday, Shadow Health Minister Meara Conway and Shadow Minister for Rural & Remote Health Jared Clarke called on Cockrill to publicly explain the extent of the capacity problems and release data showing how often patients have been denied care.

"The entire purpose of the Regina Urgent Care Centre was to provide people with timely access to urgent medical care," Conway said. "Scott Moe and Jeremy Cockrill have already abandoned their promise of operating this facility 24 hours a day because they can't recruit enough staff.

“Now, we're learning that even during advertised operating hours, patients are being turned away. Saskatchewan people deserve to know how often this is happening. No more hiding and no more playing political games with peoples’ healthcare.”

On Sunday, July 19, Carla Beck's team received a call from a patient reporting that the Urgent Care Centre had been at maximum capacity for several hours. Staff at the facility confirmed that this was the case and advised that the centre reaches capacity and turns ill patients away "almost daily."

A recent freedom of information request shows that last October, less than half of the required shifts to keep the urgent care centre running were filled. Still, despite all of this, the Sask. Party is planning to build more urgent care centres.

Beck’s team continues to hear concerns that the urgent care centre is not decreasing emergency waits, and it is pulling physicians away from emergency medicine and family medicine, deeping the staffing crisis in those areas.

“What good are a bunch of empty healthcare buildings when this government doesn’t have — and never had — a plan to staff them?” Clarke said. “This government is always so eager to cut ribbons and declare victory, but we hear everyday from people on the frontlines that healthcare is in worse shape than ever. It’s time to kick the Sask. Party out of office and get busy on the big, bold change we need to lead the nation in healthcare like we used to.”

In their letter, Conway and Clarke asked the Minister to immediately disclose:

How many times the Regina Urgent Care Centre has operated at or above maximum capacity since opening;
How many times the centre has gone on bypass and turned patients away; and
How many patients have been denied care because the facility was full;
Any data showing the Urgent Care Centre is reducing strain on emergency rooms

Last month, Carla Beck’s team released an interim report as part of the ongoing Your Care, Your Say healthcare consultation, the largest in a generation. The report is available at YourCareYourSay.ca and outlines five guiding principles for rebuilding Saskatchewan’s healthcare system.

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