REGINA - The Sask Party government was under fire again Thursday on health care, this time over fire code issues at St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon.
Saskatoon Fire Department had declared St. Paul’s Hospital in violation due to overcapacity issues, with reports of crowded hallways at the hospital.
In speaking to reporters at the legislature Thursday, Health Minister Everett Hindley said it was “not something that was acceptable to us.”
“It’s not acceptable, that’s not something that we want to have happen, and that indicates we don’t have enough room for patients that are coming out. So that’s a concern for us. It’s something that needs to be addressed. It needs to be addressed soon.”
Hindley said they had been in contact with Sask. Health Authority on the situation; as well, he pointed to some investments to increase the number of complex in acute care, beds, and some of the hospitals in Saskatoon, and also in Regina, as well as provide additional staff.
“Patient flow is the most important thing, here, as people come in, making sure that they have access availability to healthcare, but then as they’re treated that they have a place to go afterwards. And that’s part of the challenge as well, as we have ALC patients or alternative level of care, that may not necessarily have a bed available to them so they’re tying up acute care beds in some of our tertiary centers.”
Hindley also said he had been in a meeting with SHA leadership, paramedics leadership and ministry officials to talk about the pressures on EMS and also capacity in Saskatoon.
“I’ve asked them to bring forward and we’re investigating as well, what else can we do to help make sure we have enough room in our hospitals for patients, so they are not placed in hallways.”
Hindley also noted there were some seasonal pressures happening in the hospitals such as colds and flu. Hindley also was asked about the pressures on paramedics, and said in speaking to paramedics that there’s “really no one particular thing that’s driving this, it’s really a combination.”
Opposition Health Critic Vicki Mowat laid into the government over the beds-in-hallways situation at St. Paul’s when speaking to reporters at the Legislature.
"It is really discouraging to see a government that has been in power for 16 years, has been saying the same things over and over again about how they’re working on it, when we see our health system, our emergency rooms crumbling, completely overfilled, and no action taken by the government to fix it. It’s completely unacceptable," said Mowat.
"We’ve been raising concerns about patients in hallway beds without access to monitors, without access to treatment and care, for years now. And now we’re at a point where people who are working in the hospital, the healthcare workers, are telling us this is the worst it’s ever been. Make no mistake, this is not an anomaly or a blip. This is the worst it’s ever been. The minister has no answers about how many times this has happened, he has no answers about how he’s going to fix it. That is completely unacceptable.”
