SaskatchewanThe Saskatchewan Health Authority denies any changes to its criteria for closing an ER and says it is implementing a single standard across the province.A new website publishes current and upcoming disruptions to service at the province’s emergency roomsAlexander Quon · CBC News · Posted: Nov 13, 2025 4:39 PM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.From left, Saskatchewan Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill looks on as Saskatchewan Health Authority Chief Operating Officer Derek Miller speaks with media on Nov. 13, 2025. (Kirk Fraser/CBC News)Saskatchewan is now publicly reporting when an emergency department in the province has been closed. Every day at 4 p.m. CST, the province’s service disruptions website will publish the current or upcoming (within 24 hours) closures of any emergency room in the province. Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill has said the updates will give residents of the province the information they need the most. “Over the next couple of weeks we’ll start to hear feedback from the public and certainly make adjustments if needed,” Cockrill said this week. The new policy immediately drew criticism from the Saskatchewan NDP. Citing an internal memo distributed by the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), the NDP allege the SHA has modified the requirements necessary to keep an ER open. Cockrill rejected that allegation, saying there have been no policy changes except the implementation of a single standard across the province. “We’ve got 12 regional health authorities that are now part of a single health authority. So there’s long-standing practices sometimes in different parts of the health-care system that we’re still working on getting consistent across the province,” he said. According to SHA chief operating officer Derek Miller, the criteria to keep an ER open include: Having at least one physician either physically in the location or present through the province’s virtual programHaving operational lab services to allow for diagnostics Having at least two nurses on site, with one of them being a registered nurse (RN)The NDP Opposition has continued to insist that this is a change in criteria and something they’ve repeatedly referred to as the “one nurse rule.” From left, Brandi Morissette, chief administrative officer of Oxbow, Sask., stands next to Keith Jorgenson, Saskatchewan NDP critic for seniors, and Jared Clarke, Saskatchewan NDP critic for rural and remote health during a news conference on Nov. 13, 2025. (Alexander Quon/CBC)Keith Jorgenson, the NDP’s critic for seniors, said the province is now asking a single nurse to cover a variety of positions in a single facility.”They’re asking one RN to do every single one of those things and and we honestly think that that is dangerous. It’s compromising the care of people in rural Saskatchewan,” Jorgenson said. Jared Clarke, the NDP’s critic for rural and remote health, said the Opposition has received multiple messages since the memo was distributed, including from health-care workers voicing their own concerns. “It is workers who are holding on by a thread while they take care of the people of Saskatchewan in their local communities, who are coming forward to us saying this is concerning, this is dangerous,” Clarke said. “So for the minister to come out and pretend like this is ‘nothing to be seen here’ is wrong.”Cockrill stood by the decision, saying this is about implementing standards while also being transparent. “A disruption in Kipling should mean the same thing as a disruption in Turtleford, right? I think that’s a fair expectation,” Cockrill said.ABOUT THE AUTHORAlexander Quon is the provincial affairs reporter for CBC Saskatchewan. He has been a reporter with CBC Saskatchewan since 2021 and is happy to be working in his hometown of Regina after half a decade in Atlantic Canada. He has previously worked with the CBC News investigative unit in Nova Scotia and Global News in Halifax. Alexander specializes in freedom of information requests and data reporting. He can be reached at: alexander.quon@cbc.ca. FacebookTwitter
As Sask. begins to publish ER closures, NDP allege standards have been changed
