Olivia Grandy
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
After a video showing crowded emergency room hallways at Royal University Hospital gained traction on social media, the Saskatchewan Health Authority acknowledged the patient surge — but says it was largely seasonal and typical of many emergency rooms.
The SHA held a hastily-assembled virtual media scrum on Thursday regarding what it called “capacity pressures at Royal University Hospital.” It came after a video was posted online showing the hallways connected to RUH’s emergency room lined with patients in beds.
“There are small partitions separating patients, no privacy, no security. I couldn’t even concentrate when the specialist came because there was so much activity happening all around,” video uploader Lynn Harmon wrote in the caption.
According to the caption, the video was taken on Sept. 25.
John Ash, the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s vice-president for integrated Saskatoon health, said the SHA is “very much aware of recent capacity increases we had at Royal University Hospital last week.”
“We know, as with most emergency departments, we are going to see surges in overall capacity and volume,” he said.
According to Ash, a number of “compounding factors” contributed to the overcrowding. The early presence of seasonal flu was one of the reasons, along with the need for more inpatient beds that the city is in the process of installing.
“Sometimes admitted patients who have been seen by the doctor, have had a whole care plan (put) in place and are just waiting for an inpatient bed. Some of those patients are moved outside of the core emergency department, and I know the video was a reflection of that particular environment,” he said.
In March, the provincial government made a $15-million investment to add 109 more beds to Saskatoon City Hospital. Twenty are currently operational, and the rest will come over the next number of months, Ash said.
Ash said it is not appropriate for patients experiencing contagious respiratory illness to be placed in hallways.
“If they are requiring isolation or they have some type of significant injury, illness or cardiac issue, it would not be appropriate to put them in a hallway,” he said.
In 2023, the provincial government acknowledged the sheer volume of high patient numbers, crammed spaces and staffing shortages, and launched a set of hospital-capacity pressure action plans in Saskatoon and Regina. Ash said this investment has improved the state of long-term care and ER wait times in the province.
He also highlighted plans in Saskatoon for a 24-hour urgent care centre which is projected to open in the spring of 2026.
NDP health critic Keith Jorgenson said the video “is not the image we want for Saskatchewan — people are leaving and others will refuse to come here when they see this.”
Ash said that past challenges, such as patients spending long hours in waiting rooms while in serious condition, have improved.
“Our intention here is to make sure that our emergency departments are able to function, to be able to have capacity to meet those emergency patients that are coming in the door, so we can provide quick care (and) patients aren’t waiting in the waiting room as they historically used to.”
