The emergency department of both the Herbert & District, and Leader & District Integrated Health Facilities will soon be re-opening, after seeing services temporarily suspended as part of the Saskatchewan Health Authority's pandemic response plan.

The Government of Saskatchewan and the SHA announced Tuesday afternoon that the pair of hospitals were part of nine around the province that would soon be reopening to their previous levels of service.

A dozen facilities around the province saw ERs temporarily suspended while the SHA underwent a process to temporarily convert the hospitals to Alternate Level of Care sites. The provincial government had noted that the move was to help build capacity for a potential surge in COVID-19 cases, and protect against outbreaks in the facilities.

"Thankfully, the position that we're in in Saskatchewan - and this is due to what Saskatchewan people have done as individuals - is we are not experiencing any of the modelling numbers that were first brought out a couple months ago here at this point in time," said Premier Scott Moe. "That's not to say that there couldn't be surges as we move forward, and we need to be prepared for that.

The first facility opening will be Arcola, doing so on June 15.

There had been pushback and concern from the public in the days prior to the announcement, regarding what were viewed by some as the potential for permanent closures to the ERs at the facilities.

"If there was some confusion about whether it was temporary or not, probably we could have did a better job in communicating that," said Minister of Health, Jim Reiter. "We've absolutely clarified that today. There was concern with some people that the closure of the ER would become permanent - that's not the case. I think the fear stoked from there, that potentially some of the facilities would be closed."

Reiter, the MLA for Rosetown-Elrose, said that approximately four to six weeks after the opening in Arcola, Herbert, Leader, and the remaining eight of the nine facilities will follow suit.