The Saskatchewan government has added bassinets in neonatal intensive care units in Regina and Saskatoon that were full last week.
Health Minister Dustin Duncan was responding to reports that four patients were transferred out of Regina, including two who had to be sent out of the province for care.
Duncan says Regina has 25 bassinets, while Saskatoon has space for 38 babies in its neonatal intensive care unit.
He says it doesn’t happen often that both centres are full and there’s no trend yet to indicate that more beds are needed.
But NDP health critic Danielle Chartier says the families affected are already going through a stressful time.
She says it can be terribly disruptive for a family to be forced to pack up and leave the province.
Questions about space were also raised by the Opposition NDP in 2011 after Regina had sent 78 mothers and babies out of the city or province in a span of eight months.
The neonatal intensive care unit at Regina General Hospital provides services for southern Saskatchewan.
The Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region’s website says the unit admits about 800 newborns a year.
Some babies stay in the unit for a few hours of observation, while others may spend up to four months receiving specialized care.
Babies might be in the unit if they were born premature, have complications during or after birth, have respiratory distress, need treatments for infections, have problems requiring surgery or have cardiac problems.
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