Health Minister Tom Osborne says his department is reviewing new numbers that show 326 people died in the province’s emergency departments in 2022.

That’s up from the previous two years which saw 262 deaths in each year.

Osborne says his department is trying to assess what’s behind the spike in ER deaths over the last year.

He says they’re looking at the factors involved, including whether it is a natural spike, whether it is due to an aging population, COVID, or whether work disruptions affected how people availed of health care and emergency services.

Osborne says they’re looking at other jurisdictions to see if COVID would’ve had a direct, or indirect impact on the numbers.