Sask. Opposition criticizes government after Regina Urgent Care Centre reduces hours again

Chris Edwards · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 08, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

Saskatchewan's Opposition NDP said connected Monday that the state is failing to unrecorded up to its wellness attraction promises aft the Regina Urgent Care Centre temporarily closed down implicit the weekend.

On Saturday, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) announced that the installation was temporarily reducing its operating hours to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. CST connected Sunday. The centre is typically unfastened until 9:30 p.m. each day. SHA said the closure was owed to a deficiency of disposable physicians.

"The authorities talks a batch astir having the astir assertive recruitment strategy, but the occupation is that we're not retaining the employees that we have," Saskatchewan NDP subordinate wellness professional Keith Jorgenson said connected Monday.

"We person a authorities that doesn't perceive to [health-care workers], that doesn't worth them, that doesn't pass with them."

The centre was backmost to regular operating hours connected Monday.

The facility, located on Albert Street successful Regina's North Central neighbourhood, opened successful July 2024. Its intent is to easiness unit connected Regina's exigency rooms by treating patients with non-life threatening injuries that inactive necessitate same-day care. It besides provides humor testing, diagnostic imaging, pharmacy services and intelligence wellness support.

When it was archetypal opened, then-Saskatchewan Health Minister Everett Hindley predicted the centre would person 20,000 visits per year. At the time, the centre was wide expected to beryllium unfastened 24-hours a time by the autumn of 2024.

Saturday was the 3rd clip the UCC has had to adjacent early. It besides closed aboriginal connected June 14, asking patients to spell to Regina General Hospital oregon Pasqua Hospital, and temporarily reduced its hours successful December 2024.

In a statement, the SHA did not supply a timeline for erstwhile the UCC would beryllium unfastened 24 hours a day. It said that the centre has present treated implicit 41,000 patients, and is functioning "as intended."

"Patient volumes are aligning intimately with archetypal 24-hour projections, with galore individuals receiving attraction wrong the planned hours of operation," it said, adding that the authorities was intimately monitoring diligent levels to marque adjustments arsenic needed.

"We person a work to run astatine a capableness that tin reliably supply harmless and accessible care. Saskatchewan, similar each provinces, continues to enlistee exigency and household physicians, nurses and different wellness attraction providers to assistance alleviate staffing challenges."

Construction is underway connected a caller urgent attraction centre successful Saskatoon. Ground was breached connected the building, which sits connected the aged Pleasant Hill School tract adjacent St. Paul's Hospital, successful September 2024. The task is simply a collaboration betwixt the Saskatchewan authorities and Ahtahkakoop Cree Developments.

The Saskatoon centre is expected to beryllium unfastened successful the outpouring of 2026. It excessively is expected to beryllium unfastened 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The Saskatchewan authorities says it besides wants to physique much of these urgent attraction centres. In its astir caller provincial budget, the authorities allocated $1 cardinal to enactment the readying of caller centres successful Prince Albert, Moose Jaw and North Battleford, on with 2nd locations successful Regina and Saskatoon.