Overcrowding at Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital is worsening: nurses' union
The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses is raising the alarm about overcrowding at Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital emergency room.
SUN posted an anonymous email from a nurse at Royal University Hospital on their Facebook page, detailing the impacts of the overcrowding. They said in that email that their shift started with around 40 people in emergency waiting for a bed elsewhere in the hospital and there were about 20 patients in the hallway.
"Some of them [in the hallway] are directly in front of the nursing station with absolutely no privacy. They are unable to get proper rest due to the general chaos of the emergency department," the nurse wrote.
The nurse added the overcrowding is affecting paramedics' ability to offload patients.
"We are unable to offload any EMS — delaying them in the hallways as well, thus decreasing the amount of EMS personnel to attend 911 calls in Saskatoon and surrounding rural communities," the nurse wrote.
The nurse also said healthcare professionals can't safely manage and care for all the admitted patients while doing the same for emergency patients.
"It's a huge safety issue when you think about having patients lined up in the hallway, but think about their their dignity," Denise Dick, the Saskatchewan Union of Nurse's first vice-president said in an interview Wednesday.
"Think about — you're supposed to go to a hospital to get cared for so you can get better, but you're on a stretcher for days on end."
Royal University Hospital is not the first hospital in Saskatoon to face overcrowding issues this year. The nurse's union said St. Paul's Hospital had to take unprecedented safety measures in February due to extreme overcrowding.
Dick said Saskatchewan hospitals have been dealing with overcapacity issues for years.
"It's not a new issue, but it has just become progressively worse and worse and worse over the last number of years," Dick said.
Denise Dick is the first vice-president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses. (Saskatchewan Union of Nurses)
Dick said the overcrowding at the hospital is creating a very stressful working environment for nurses.
"We have massive numbers of nurses that are at a point where they would prefer to just leave the profession because they just can't take it any longer and then that just exacerbates the problem," Dick said.
Dick said nurses should be more involved in the conversations around fixing overcrowding in Saskatchewan's hospitals.
"We as nurses who work in the system and know the system have ideas. We want to be heard," Dick said.
"We want to see somebody actually acknowledging that what we're suggesting could make some change."
Saskatchewan's health minister Everett Hindley told reporters Tuesday the government is aware of the overcrowding issues at Royal University Hospital.
"I've been there on a couple of occasions to St. Paul's, looking forward to visiting other hospitals across the province including Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon as well to see first hand some of the pressures they're currently facing and most importantly hear from the staff," Hindley said.
Saskatchewan health minister Everett Hindley addressed overcrowding at the Royal University Hospital after question period on Tuesday. (CBC)
Hindley said that funding the Royal University Hospital is receiving through the Saskatoon Capacity Pressure Action Plan is meant to address some of the overcrowding concerns.
"Giving them funding to hire more staff so they have more staff in emergency departments, providing others whenever we can try to find opportunities for space within these facilities and doing what we can with what we have for the existing space and staff," Hindley said.
"But there's been significant progress made by the Saskatchewan Health Authority and hiring staff to fill those vacancies."
CBC News reached out to the Saskatchewan Health Authority for a progress update on the number of staff hired through Saskatoon Capacity Pressure Action Plan but did not hear back by the time of publication.
