Overcrowded ERs still pushing workers to ‘breaking point’: Sask. NDP

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The Saskatchewan NDP says hospitals in Saskatoon continue to deal with dangerously high patient numbers and unsustainably low staffing levels.

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According to NDP health critic Vicki Mowat, St. Paul’s Hospital has been at or above 200 per cent capacity multiple times since the beginning of October. Royal University Hospital, meanwhile, has been at 300 per cent capacity or higher on several occasions.

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“Earlier this week, frontline health-care workers at the St. Paul’s Hospital told us the horror of what is happening inside the emergency room,” Mowat told media on Friday near the hospital on Saskatoon’s west side.

“Every bed was full, so the triage area was turned into a makeshift treatment area … There are three nurses per shift in triage, taking care of 115 patients per day. That isn’t safe for patients or for frontline workers.”

The NDP says emergency rooms at the hospitals are unsafe and that workers “are being pushed to their breaking point.”

According to the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) in October, the emergency room at RUH ran out of oxygen and stretchers during a particular shift. Fifty patients were admitted during that shift with no available beds, and more than a dozen beds had to be set up in hallways. SUN says there was only one nurse for every 14 patients at the hospital.

The Saskatchewan Party has recently said it will continue to work to reduce wait times by hiring more staff. The last provincial budget promised $584 million to deal with bottlenecks in the system, along with plans to use nurse practitioners. Premier Scott Moe has said his health-care plan, launched two years ago, has hired more staff to provide relief to the system.

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Last fall, the provincial government — acknowledging spiralling patient numbers, tight spaces and staffing shortages — launched hospital capacity pressure action plans in Saskatoon and Regina.

During the recent provincial election campaign, Moe highlighted some of his party’s recent announcements, including a pledge to provide women with cervical self-screening kits as an alternative to the current testing regime, and touted programs and plans that include efforts to recruit health-care professionals. The Sask. Party’s action plan has recruited around 1,400 nurses over the past 18 months, Moe said recently.

He has also noted the establishment of an urgent care centre in Regina and work to build a similar facility in Saskatoon in partnership with Ahtahkakoop Cree Developments.

Mowat on Friday said “talking points” from Moe and the Sask. Party haven’t improved patient care.

“They’ve done nothing to stop 4,000 frontline health-care workers from leaving the profession in Saskatchewan in 2023 alone,” she said.

“The people I’m talking to on the front lines are ready for change — they want public health care they can rely on.”

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