It’s a potentially scary situation for new parents, as Regina’s General Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is described as overcapacity and nurses are searching for help.
The news comes after the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) published an anonymous email sent to the union by someone who said they are an NICU staff member.
“We’ve been operating over capacity for weeks, with no immediate relief in sight,” the email reads. “Our dedicated staff are exhausted, working extended hours and multiple overtime shifts to ensure our most vulnerable patients receive the care they need.”
The email also outlines the normal one-to-one ratio for nurses to patients is being doubled, and that the NICU was using its last available ventilator.
SUN and the Saskatchewan NDP say the situation at the NICU has been “dire” for weeks and they have received dozens of complaints from healthcare workers.
Tracy Zambory, the SUN president, said there are beds for 26 babies and there are now 28 babies in the NICU.
“What we’re seeing is a group of registered nurses who are fearing for the safety of our most vulnerable little people, the sickest little people in this province,” Zambory explained.
Zambory went on to say the overcapacity issue at the NICU has gotten to the point where they need to transfer babies out. But the patients aren’t being moved in Canada.
“We’ve gone all across the prairie provinces,” Zambory said. “British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, (there) is no room anywhere in their facility so we’ve actually had to transfer mums and babies out to North Dakota.”
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The Saskatchewan Health Authority and health minister Jeremy Cockrill deny this, saying NICU patients have not been transferred out of province since January 2021 or out of country since 2008.
“No NICU babies or moms have been sent to North Dakota, out of province nor out of country due to the recent demand for care. There has NOT been a transfer out of province for an NICU patient since January 2021, and there has NOT been a transfer of a NICU patient out of country since 2008,” the SHA said in a statement.
“Nobody has been sent out of province due to capacity issues,” Cockrill said. (Kids being sent to North Dakota) is inaccurate information. It’s irresponsible to spread that information. Expecting mothers in the southern half of this province can expect despite capacity challenges, qualified health care workers at the General and other facilities ready to care for them and their newborn babies.”
“To put care in doubt…
Zambory said members from the SHA and government need to actually step foot in hospitals and see the conditions for themselves.
“There should be people in power like minister Cockrill putting on a pair of shoes, going to the NICU and having a conversation to see where we can work together to actually solve this problem,” Zambory said.
“It is a very serious and dangerous problem that we have in the neonatal intensive care unit right now.”
Meara Conway, Saskatchewan NDP shadow minister for rural & remote health, said she was devastated to learn of the crisis.
“These are babies and the health care they critically need isn’t there for them — this is every parent’s worst nightmare,” said Conway.
“It’s unacceptable that weeks into this crisis, we only know about this because of the courage of a front-line health care worker who is clearly desperate. The Sask. Party discloses nothing and does nothing.
“Some of these babies are fighting to live and everything possible should be done to provide the lifesaving care they need.”
When it comes to the lack of ventilators, the nurses and government have a different opinion on the issue.
“Our members are telling us very clearly that there isn’t enough ventilators,” Zambory explained.
However, Cockrill said the hospital has not run out of ventilators.
“It is my understanding that is not the case,” he said Monday concerning ventilators. “Some of the things represented in those posts are not entirely accurate.”
Cockrill said part of the capacity issue comes from simply more people having babies at this time.
“We’ve had an uptick in volume at the NICU unit and there have been more babies born in the last couple weeks in Regina which is a good thing as our province grows,” Cockrill added.
“Even in this year’s budget we announced some planning dollars for a maternal high acuity unit at the general and these are important priorities. Certainly, we see utilization pressures in several facilities around the province but we are making investments to ease those pressures.”
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