Bryn Levy
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Amid a spike in ER waits at a Saskatoon hospital, Saskatchewan’s Opposition NDP pronounced the province’s plans to address hospital overcrowding dead on arrival.
“This is not a ‘blip’ in the system. The system itself is in chaos,” NDP health critic Vicki Mowat said Tuesday during a media conference at her Saskatoon constituency office.
Mowat was responding to data highlighted on social media by the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) showing that at one point on Tuesday, the St. Paul’s Hospital emergency room in Saskatoon had admitted 41 patients with no beds available for them, leaving staff to treat patients in hallways.
Mowat said the situation at St. Paul’s is not isolated, and suggested it was emblematic of the failure of “action plans” put in place by provincial health officials to address overcrowding in Saskatoon and Regina hospitals.
The Saskatoon action plan was the first of these, launching in November 2023 after fire department staff flagged overcrowding at St. Paul’s as a violation of fire code rules requiring clear pathways to exits.
While she said more details will roll out in her party’s provincial election platform, Mowat said an NDP plan to improve hospital staffing would rely on more input from frontline staff.
She also accused the provincial government of being over-reliant on efforts to recruit new nurses while not doing enough to retain existing staff.
SUN president Tracy Zambory said the action plans have thus far been “nothing but broken promises,” adding that the initiatives to address overcrowding have thus far “not amounted to any help that has translated to the frontline whatsoever.”
She said many of her union’s nearly 10,000 members are feeling burnt out and demoralized after spending years offering ideas for solutions that aren’t implemented, including a nursing task force to help address employee retention.
In the meantime, Zambory said health care in Saskatchewan has devolved into “a chaotic mess” that has left many nurses questioning whether it’s still safe for patients to seek treatment.
“We don’t want the public to be fearful to go into an emergency room across this province,” she said.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority, in an emailed statement, acknowledged “volume and acuity pressures in our emergency departments and inpatient wards in Saskatoon” while pointing to “ongoing work” to implement the capacity pressure action plan and prevent having patients treated in hospital hallways.
“Our intention is to always care for patients in an appropriate care environment, eliminating the use of hallway beds in our emergency departments whenever possible. However, capacity pressures can ebb and flow, meaning we must also adapt to meet demand, while providing safe, high-quality care at all times.”
