SASKATOON – Saskatchewan NDP Leader Cam Broten announced plans Friday to increase acute care beds and emergency room hours at Saskatoon City Hospital. The leader of the provincial opposition said if his party is elected, 40 inpatient beds would be added and ER hours would be expanded to 8 a.m. CT until midnight.
Currently, the ER is open between 9 a.m. and 8:30 p.m.
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“I’m announcing that New Democrats will restore City Hospital to its proper use,” Broten told media gathered in Kinsmen Park behind the hospital.
Broten said the city’s newest hospital is under-used, leading to longer wait times, overcrowding and hallway medicine in St. Paul’s Hospital and Royal University Hospital.
“This hospital isn’t being used as effectively as it could be,” said Dr. Brian Geller, an emergency physician at City Hospital and a former president of the Saskatchewan Medical Association.
Geller said he’s often had to transfer patients to other hospitals because they couldn’t be admitted at City Hospital due to a lack of available beds.
The facility was designed to handle 343 active care beds, according to the NDP. However, the party states only 169 beds are in place.
A provincial spokesperson said adding 40 new beds alone would cost more than 4.5 times the figures provided by the NDP.
“The numbers don’t add up and frankly, it’s 40 beds after seeing one thousand closed under the NDP,” said Saskatchewan Health Minister Dustin Duncan.
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Duncan said the Saskatoon Health Region has encountered challenges with capacity in the past. He said the Saskatchewan Party has worked to overcome those challenges by adding 650 new doctors and nearly 3,000 nurses since taking power.
Election day is April 4 in Saskatchewan.
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