Sask. nurses say St. Paul's ER 'worst it's ever been,' despite health region action plan

The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) is once again sounding that alarm about the current state of the emergency room at St. Paul’s Hospital.

The union and the provincial NDP are calling on the health authority and government to fix the system before it causes someone to lose their life.

It began Tuesday when SUN posted on X, saying the situation is critical and they want the government to act immediately.

“I have been in communications with our members at St. Paul's Hospital and university, in their emergency rooms, and they're telling me that this is the worst it's ever been at St. Paul's Hospital,” SUN president Tracy Zambory told CTV News.

The SUN president says the state of St. Paul’s ER is worse than it was when nurses rallied in November, calling for vital changes to the system.

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The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) responded with the Saskatoon Capacity Pressure Action Plan, but Zambory says the state of emergency care has gotten worse.

“The Capacity Pressure Action Plan was touted as a plan so that there would be no more nursing in hallways, there would be no more hallway beds. Not only do we have more hallway beds, we have them in places that they never were before,” she says.

The NDP health critic echoed the calls by the union of nurses.

“We're hearing today that it's the worst it's been since nurses raised this back in November. So there's a lot of concerns right now about how much pressure the system is under,” Vicki Mowat told CTV News.

Timing with fall around the corner makes it even more concerning according to Mowat.

“We are leading up to flu season. This always becomes a time where health care workers start to look at capacity in the systems and there are serious concerns that right now we don't have the capacity to get through a flu season,” she says.

Both the union of nurses and NDP are calling on the provincial government and SHA to take the concerns of frontline workers to heart and fix the situation immediately.

In an emailed statement, the Saskatchewan Health Authority told CTV News it had leadership teams meeting with emergency room staff.

“Members of the Saskatchewan Health Authority leadership teams have been physically present in all emergency departments throughout the city (including St. Paul’s Hospital) to meet with staff and physicians, hear their concerns and work with them to ensure capacity response plans are being implemented and support the actions that address capacity challenges,” the statement said.

The health authority said it continues to make progress on the goals of its action plan, including hiring and improving patient flow.