Starting in early November, Saskatchewan residents will have access to daily updates on emergency service disruptions across the province.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is launching a new reporting process for emergency service disruptions that will post all emergency service disruptions every day at 4 p.m. on the SHA’s website.

Currently, the SHA posts service disruptions of seven days or more.

“These changes will ensure that accurate and reliable information about service availability will be consistently available to the public while our teams work to restore emergency services impacted by temporary disruptions,” said Derek Miller, chief operating officer of the SHA.

According to the SHA, the new system will include an alphabetical listing of affected facilities, daily updates on the SHA website, notices on individual facility pages and real-time information available through HealthLine 811.

If a disruption occurs on short notice and is not yet reflected online, the SHA says signage will be posted at the affected facility, and the information will be included in the next daily update.

The announcement comes on the same day that the Saskatchewan NDP introduced a bill into the legislature that would require public notification of rural hospital closures within one hour of the closure occurring.

The Provincial Health Authority (ER Closure right-to-know) Amendment Act proposes that the SHA must notify the public through a website or electronic means.

What disrupts emergency services

The SHA says disruptions may occur due to staffing shortages, physician vacancies, unplanned absences, scheduled vacations or facility upgrades.

It says temporary closures are a last resort and every effort is made to maintain emergency services.

A leaked SHA memo provided by the NDP shows that a shortage of occupational therapists at Royal University Hospital (RUH) is disrupting nine hospitals, including the emergency department and general surgery.

The SHA confirmed occupational therapy services at RUH have been adjusted due to vacancies.

“Existing occupational therapy services will focus on patients where intervention will have the largest impact on patient outcomes and the health system,” the SHA said in a statement.

Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said the province recognizes the pressure staffing shortages are placing on health-care workers.

He has said a new occupational therapy program at the University of Saskatchewan, set to begin next fall, will help with recruitment and retention efforts.

Schedule disruption

The health minister says there have been scheduling errors that have led to pay errors and challenges in day-to-day operations, due to the Administrative Information Management System (AIMS).

AIMS is a provincial initiative that integrates numerous administrative systems into a single centralized platform for health-care workers. It’s designed to manage a wide range of functions, including human resources like payroll and scheduling.

On Wednesday, Cockrill announced that health-care workers will stop using the AIMS system and will return to using scheduling systems that were in place before AIMS.

“While significant effort has been put into correcting these problems, we have now determined that the AIMS team and the technology vendor will not be able to resolve the technical issues as quickly or effectively as needed,” Cockrill said.

According to the SHA, the supply chain, finance, payroll and human resources components of the program are not affected.