Regina’s Pasqua Hospital ER under partial closure

REGINA – Pasqua Hospital Emergency Department will start providing limited service beginning November 28^th.

The ER will not be accepting new patients after 7:30 p.m. and before 8:00 a.m. daily. Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region says anyone requiring emergency services during those hours will have to go to the General Hospital.

ER Patients who are already admitted before 7:30 p.m. will be taken care of until they’re ready to be discharged, admitted, or transferred to General for continued care. Patients arriving during closed hours will be transported by EMS to the General at no cost. The Health Region estimates this will last for at least three months.

The partial closure is due to limited physician resources, and comes after repeated warnings from RQHR officials that they were operating at low staff levels.

The issue dates back to mid-October, but RQHR says the situation has not improved and physician staffing levels are still about one-third below what is needed to properly staff both ER departments.

RQHR Vice President of Physician and Integrated Health Services, Dr. David McCutcheon, said in a statement that they are working with the Ministry of Health, ER physicians and senior management to create short and long-term solutions to the problem. He says they’ve created a task force to remove barriers to ER physician recruitment and retention.

In the meantime he regrets the inconvenience to patients, and encourages them to visit walk-in clinics or their family doctor for less-urgent care issues.