‘System is in crisis’: Union reports 350 per cent ER capacity at RUH

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An evening shift this week at Royal University Hospital, during which emergency room capacity exceeded 350 per cent, is another sign of a health-care system in need of a major overhaul, say unions and the Saskatchewan NDP.

According to the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN), the emergency room at RUH ran out of oxygen and stretchers on Tuesday. During the shift, 50 patients were admitted 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.

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“Scott Moe needs to explain how he allowed this to happen on his watch,” said Vicki Mowat, the NDP’s candidate in Saskatoon’s Fairview riding in the current provincial election. “He broke our health-care system.

“Health-care workers are at a breaking point right now. It’s worse than it’s ever been. So many people are reaching out, just looking for some relief. They’re desperate. They’re burnt out. We don’t have time to wait for help.”

On Thursday, the ER at Royal University Hospital remained chaotic. Some patients said they had been in the emergency room, waiting to be admitted, for more than 12 hours. New patients were arriving every few minutes.

“Unfortunately, the system is in crisis, and we have a government that’s not supporting the system. We need to make changes,” Mowat said outside Royal University Hospital.

With the writs dropping this week and election day in Saskatchewan set for Oct. 28, the NDP has pledged reforms so more people can find a family doctor and wait less for emergency care and surgeries. In Saskatoon, the NDP has said it would open City Hospital’s emergency room and run it 24 hours a day to create more emergency beds and alleviate capacity pressure in other ERs.

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The Saskatchewan Party has said it would 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. Moe has said his health-care plan, launched two years ago, has hired more staff to provide relief to the system.

Moe has repeatedly told voters that an NDP government under Beck would return Saskatchewan to a time of hospital and school closures, people leaving for other provinces and a stagnant economy.

The NDP last governed in Saskatchewan from 1991 to 2007 and has since been the Opposition for 17 years. It made cuts after the former Progressive Conservative government nearly bankrupted the province.

Last fall, the provincial government — acknowledging high patient numbers, crammed spaces and staffing shortages — launched a set of hospital capacity pressure action plans in Saskatoon and Regina.

The province said recently the SHA has hired more than 300 additional full-time equivalent staff in Saskatoon and Regina, including 132 nursing positions. The SHA has also opened nearly 180 additional long-term, convalescent and transitional care beds in the two cities.

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Mowat on Thursday said the Saskatchewan Party’s plan is not working.

“Nurses are heartbroken, looking for other jobs, because it’s simply not sustainable. When you’re expected to care for 350 per cent capacity, it’s simply not sustainable,” Mowat said.

“Hallway medicine at the Royal University Hospital, nurses run off their feet dealing with 14 patients at once, a lack of critical, lifesaving medical equipment. I cannot imagine the pain and anguish people felt (Tuesday) night.”

Mowat’s Thursday press conference took place around the same time hundreds of nurses and supporters rallied outside the Legislative building in Regina.

Among the speakers at the rally were SUN president Tracy Zambory, Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation president Samantha Becotte, Saskatchewan Federation of Labour president Lori Johb, Canadian Federation of Nurses Union president Linda Silas, and several emergency room doctors and nurses from Saskatoon, Regina and rural communities.

CUPE Saskatchewan president Kent Peterson said hospitals are “bursting at the seams” and called the current provincial campaign “a health-care election.”

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— With Canadian Press files from Jeremy Simes

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