Sask. Health Authority touts progress dealing with hospital capacity issues

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) has said its efforts in relieving capacity issues in the province’s two major cities is showing progress.

“Since the initial implementation of the Action Plans, the SHA has hired more than 156 additional full time equivalent (FTE) staff in Saskatoon and Regina, including more than 60 additional nursing positions,” the SHA said in a news release on Thursday.

“Efforts are underway to recruit an additional 290 FTE staff in Saskatoon and Regina, including an additional 107 FTE nurses.”

In Saskatoon, 140 full-time positions are being recruited and hired, including 55 nurses. 

Of the 84 new long-term care beds being opened in the city, 40 beds are projected to be operational by May 1, 2024 with the remaining 44 beds projected to be operational by June 3, 2024.

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Seventy five convalescent care beds, or short-term recovery beds, have been added outside of hospital settings, and 68 are currently occupied, the health authority says. 

CEO Andrew Will said the province’s capacity pressure action plans have had a meaningful impact on service bottlenecks at Saskatchewan’s largest hospitals.

“We are committed to continuing to support and listen to our staff and physicians, who have provided excellent care to patients throughout the current capacity pressures,” he said in the release.

Hospital staff and patients in Regina and Saskatoon first sounded the alarm over capacity issues in late 2023. Reports at the time revealed that Regina General Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon failed fire department inspections due to patient beds lining hallways and obstructing emergency exits.

The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) has criticized the SHA’s prior announcements of “new” positions in the past — branding them as “misleading” and claiming many were temporary positons relabeled as permanent.

But SHA spokesperson for Saskatoon health John Ash says they've already seen improvements in wait times.

He says acute care settings have seen a near 50 per cent reduction in people waiting to be seen outside of a hospital — like at a care home, rehab or short-term recovery.

Ash says this has opened up 40 to 60 more beds in hospitals and reduced long-term care waits.

"Our admit no bed numbers continue to remain above where we need them to be, but this work will continue to net some gains to bring those down," he said.

After spending time in Saskatoon emergency rooms and meeting with staff, Ash says staff in hospitals are doing the best they can under challenging circumstances, and hopefully the action plan will help.

"It's important to get out and to talk to staff and understand the environments are working because it's hard, especially when their emergency departments are full and they're trying to be creative in being able to provide care in the best possible place," he said.

In addition to beds previously opened under the action plan, Ash said the Saskatoon Tribal council has helped divert more than 650 people from St. Paul's Hospital to other care clinics and shelters from Dec. 31, 2023 to Feb. 29, 2024.

Regina will have 16 more full-time hires as part of Thursday's announcement, and 47 new beds outside of hospital.

There will be 20 permanent transitional beds located at a currently vacant wing of Regina Lutheran Home — which was recently acquired by the SHA with support of the Saskatchewan government.

Those beds will be operational in May 2024, representing net-new capacity, SHA says.

The Regina Urgent Care Centre is scheduled to open this summer, providing urgent health services for illness, injuries, and mental health issues requiring same-day treatment at every hour of the day.

SHA CEO Andrew Will says that while big gains have been made, there’s plenty more to do.

"The improvements that are being made are not something that happen in an instant," Will said. "It's continued effort, it's continued progress. It's focusing on so many things." 

Saskatchewan’s 2024-25 health budget included a $30 million funding increase to support the capacity pressure action plans.

-With files from Keenan Sorokan