Pasqua Hospital and Regina General Hospital have been notified by Regina Fire that they are required to immediately address the “ongoing issue” of using corridors as staging areas or for temporary placement of patients.
Glen Perchie, director of EMS for southern Saskatchewan described it as a “shot across the bow” from the Regina Fire inspector in an email to the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region EMS on Monday.
“Simply put, placing patients or equipment in corridors is a contravention of the National Fire Code,” he wrote.
“Our goal is to try to find some middle ground with the Fire Department, while we search for a better space and perhaps better solution overall. Failing this, there could be a directive to keep patients in the ambulance until the ER can accept transfer of care.”
The emails were leaked by the Saskatchewan NDP Wednesday morning, with opposition health critic Vicki Mowat calling the situation “unacceptable.”
The Sask. NDP is demanding the government engage health-care workers and provide them with adequate resources to address the bed shortage.
“The health workers who leaked these emails to us say that things have never been so bad in all their years of service,” Mowat said. “Our health system is going in the wrong direction, and Moe and his health ministers seem completely allergic to responsibility.”
The Saskatchewan Health Authority told Global News that it will release the Regina Capacity Pressure Action Plan (RCPAP) on Thursday, a “plan to alleviate and address the immediate pressures facing hospital capacity in Regina, while introducing long-term measures to meet the current and future needs of Saskatchewan residents accessing health care services in the city.”
“The RCPAP will build on the initial success of the Saskatoon Capacity Pressure Action Plan (SCPAP), which has contributed to several immediate improvements to hospital capacity pressures, along with the introduction of medium- and long-term measures designed to make lasting improvements to system capacity.”
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