Saskatchewan increasing reporting of emergency room closures to twice daily

An emergency room sign in Regina can be seen in this file photo. (David Prisciak/CTV News)

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) will be doubling the number of updates it provides on emergency service disruptions.

According to the province, service disruptions will be posted on the SHA website twice a day at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. or as soon as practically possible.

The health authority has been providing one update per day at 4 p.m. The changes are set to go into effect on May 19.

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Speaking to reporters at the legislature Thursday morning, Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill described the improvement as in keeping with the province’s “Patients First Health Care Plan.”

When asked why the practice hasn’t already been made standard, Cockrill said its taken time to get a consistent reporting structure in place across the SHA, which is made up of 12 former health regions.

“As we’ve achieved that consistency, now we can work on increasing the frequency and availability of that information for patients,” he explained, adding the province will be working towards getting the system to update as close to real-time as possible.

The SHA’s disruption webpage can be found here.