Two emails, obtained by the Saskatchewan NDP and released to the media, describe an “extreme overcapacity crisis” in Saskatoon hospitals.
An email sent the next day said the two hospitals “have significant capacity issues with 150 patients not where they should be,” and said the congestion was “affecting the system’s ability to ensure patients are receiving the care they need in the proper setting.”
The emails describe how a command centre was set up to coordinate support. The email sent on Nov. 2 said the focus was on transferring stable patients out of the hospitals.
NDP Leader Ryan Meili, speaking in Saskatoon, said: “there are problems in our health care system before, during and after emergency care that really need to be addressed or this isn’t going to be fixed in 36 hours.”
“It’s going to keep occurring over and over and over again.”
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He said the issue is systemic and that “bed block” is a complicating factor.
The RUH emergency room opened in August. It has two and a half times the space that the previous ER had, according to SHA.
He said the NDP was renewing its call for a full review of emergency care in the province.
Provincial Health Minister Jim Reiter, speaking in Regina, said “it’s all hands on deck right now” and that the problem stems from difficulties discharging patients from the emergency rooms.
“But we recognize it’s a serious situation and they’re working hard to mitigate it.”
Reiter said a new 36-bed inpatient unit being created in RUH, and expected to open next year, will help.
A statement from the SHA said hospital leaders had been working to deal with capacity issues “for several weeks.”
“Part of the challenge is the ability to safely move patients back to their home hospitals because of similar system pressures and resources, as well as safely moving long-term care patients and alternate level of care patients to more appropriate settings outside of hospital,” the statement said.
It also said the SHA would not turn anyone away from emergency departments, but asked would-be patients to use walk-in clinics, if possible.
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