The Dexter government is facing some tough questions amid revelations it may not be able to keep a campaign promise to have all hospital emergency rooms open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Deputy health minister Kevin McNamara told a legislature committee Wednesday that chronic staffing shortages could mean that 24-7 emergency rooms are years away.

"If you don't have the staff, you can't offer service that is unsafe," he said. "You can't offer service when there's nobody there to care for the individual."

Barbara Hall, a vice-president with the Capital District Health Authority says opening the Cobequid Community Health Centre 24 hours a day wouldn't be a good use of resources.

"We really should be looking at, can we keep the centre open for a few more hours in the evening to take the pressure off what we're seeing coming at that particular time in the evening," she said.

Progressive Conservative MLA and former health minister Chris D'Entremont says the NDP are getting a reality check.

"They're making promises they can't keep," he said. "They've been doing it for a while now."

But Premier Darrell Dexter said under questioning in the legislature that the promise has no deadline - and his government is working hard.

"We're actually demonstrating the implementation of that plan, we've hired the ER advisor, we've introduced legislation that demands consultation by the district health authorities with respect to emergency services," he said. "Mr. Speaker, we've done more in the few months that we've been here than that government did in 10 years."

Dexter says that emergency rooms are not the "high water mark" when measuring improvements in the health system. He also wouldn't rule out closures if that's what a community wants.