SASKATOON - The opposition New Democrats are sounding the alarm again over conditions at St. Paul's Hospital in Saskatoon.
Opposition health critic Vicki Mowat met reporters at her constituency office in response to a statement from the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses about conditions at the hospital. In a post on the “X” platform, SUN stated that there were “41 admitted patients with no bed, using multiple Ambulatory care beds, hallway beds, waiting room treatment. Short staff. Every hospital floor has hallway beds, except one unit in Covid outbreak.“
“Leadership knew capacity was critical yesterday yet didn’t act,” SUN also stated.
This is not the first time that SUN has raised concerns about St. Paul's Hospital. Concerns were raised last November over fire code violations resulting from the hospital being over capacity.
“Healthcare workers inside St. Paul’s Hospital are telling the Opposition that the emergency room is in a state of chaos, even worse than when nurses took to the streets in protest last November,” Mowat said.
“Healthcare workers have been given no other choice than to treat people in hallways, and then ambulatory care in violation of the fire code.”
Mowat also pointed to one patient having to wait 140 hours in the hallways, while eight other patients waited over 100 hours.
“The healthcare workers we are hearing from are scared that somebody’s going to die in the waiting room before they get care. That is simply unacceptable.”
To address the situation, Mowat suggested the government take up the call of nurses for a nursing task force focussed on retention of nurses. She also pointed to an open letter submitted in December from nurses about changes that could be implemented.
But Mowat added most of those things were not implemented and were not part of the Saskatoon capacity plan rolled out to address the situation. She said bigger system-wide changes were made, and not what she described as "band-aid" solutions.
“It’s just another example of persons on the front line not being part of the solutions," Mowat said.
With files from Jon Perez
