That said, did the provincial government/Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) go too far, too soon in closing the emergency department in Davidson?

Based on the low number of COVID cases in the province, the answer is yes, the government acted too quickly. Based on the reason why, there is room for cutting the province some slack. That’s up to you.

Until last Tuesday’s Davidson council meeting, I had no idea the move was made in response to a COVID case at the Pasqua Hospital in Regina. It either wasn’t well communicated or well reported. Blame the media.

The logic, as I understand it, was that the case at Pasqua could have multiplied and spread like the nasty brush fires the province has been experiencing. Part of the pandemic plan was to make ERs, such as Davidson’s, available for other uses if people had to be transferred to Davidson from other locations.

At no time, as I understand it, was Davidson going to be a location for coronavirus patients.

The decision to close the Davidson ER was made just days after the province announced the Pasqua case was isolated, and thus there was no outbreak. In other words, the province could have stayed the course, and left the Davidson ER open.

Arm River MLA Greg Brkich said his government overreacted, given the threat seemed to be over. He also said it is better to be safe than sorry.

Given the change in circumstances, he told town council talks will be held to discuss re-opening the ER. One round of those talks could have taken place already.

SHA CEO Scott Livingstone said the goal in all planning has been to keep COVID out of places like the Davidson Health Centre.

“It is important for folks to under- stand all along in our COVID response we have been very careful to protect the most vulnerable to COVID which have been our long-term care patients,” he told NewsTalk radio. “It is important for people to know if a single COVID-positive patient walks into a facility with high-risk individuals, and we don’t know they are posi- tive, it could have a very dramatic and horrific affect on those individuals, when we see 82 per cent of the deaths from COVID nationally are in long-term care residences.”

In 12 facilities affected by the change, there are a combined total of 400 resi- dents in long-term care, he said.

“With respect to these temporary changes, we are looking at what it will take to re-open these facilities or convert them back.”

He said it isn’t as simple as turning the Open sign back on. He said the long-term beds will have to be completely separated from acute-care beds and emergency rooms “to ensure nothing is coming into that facility that would put our patients at risk.”

He said that work would take place over the next few weeks.

Clearly, the government is sticking to its game plan. Overall, that’s a good thing.

On April 8, the SHA released three scenarios should the worst of COVID-19 strike the province. It is important to note the scenarios are not predictions of the number of people in Saskatchewan who will contract the virus and potentially die. The numbers are based on the experiences of other cities/countries where the virus hit them fast and hard.

The three models released, based on the number of people a person with the virus can infect, painted a picture of mass casualties. In the worst case, if an infected person infects four people and those four infect four and so on, the result in Saskatchewan would be 408,000 cases and 8,400 deaths.

We have had approximately 650 cases and we have had, sadly, seven deaths.

The province currently has 98 intensive-care beds, with 57 in use at any one time. The province has 2,433 acute-care beds, with 1,396 typically in use.

If there is a surge in the number of cases, up to 963 beds could be needed in ICU, and 3,200 for acute care, a government report said. There would be field hospitals in Saskatoon and Regina to help cope with a surge of that magnitude.

Of those 2,433 acute-care beds, two are in Davidson. Davidson’s beds are important in the event of a sudden increase in numbers, or in situations like the one at Pasqua.

“Our surge planning has not changed,” Livingstone said in the radio interview.

Clearly, the province dodged a bullet at Pasqua Hospital, and it appears as though Davidson’s ER will soon re-open because of it.

The people of Saskatchewan and those who have guided us are to be congratulated for keeping our number of cases low. We grieve for the families that have lost loved ones.

Even though we will disagree with government decisions from time to time, to stay on top of this, we can’t drift away from their plan that got us this far.

It is easy to become complacent. We can’t succumb to temptation.

-Cam Hutchinson