Saskatoon hospital emergency room ‘collapsing’ due to staffing shortages: Nurses union

The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) says Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital’s emergency room has “collapsed” due staffing shortages.

The union says the emergency room has space for 31 people but had over 90 patients waiting for a bed, leading it to become 200 per cent over capacity on Wednesday.

“This is the first time and we have to make sure we don’t become immune to this, that it doesn’t start to become white noise when we talk about being 200 per cent over capacity,” SUN president Tracy Zambory said. 

“This is absolutely not sustainable. It’s going to result in unnecessary loss of life.”

Of the 15 ambulance’s in the city, nine were stuck with patients waiting for space at Royal University Hospital on Wednesday.

Zambory says registered nurses are not coping well and the situation is “nothing they could ever imagine” and “it’s the worst it’s ever been.” She says nurses describe treating patients who are in pain on the floor and running codes in the waiting room with gurneys “all over the place.”

Zambory says she’s met with Health Minister Paul Merriman in the last three weeks and twice with Premier Scott Moe to share how dire the situation is and solutions to help.

On Friday, The Ministry of Health told CTV News it has a four-point plan that’s already underway to recruit, train, incentivize and retain more health workers. It says the details of the plan, including new initiatives and investments, will be announced in the coming weeks.

‘BURNT OUT’

According to SUN, nurses at Pasqua Hospital in Regina are over 50 per cent understaffed on Friday and will be understaffed by almost 60 per cent later in the day.

A SUN survey showed 83 per cent of its members say they’re short staffed when they go to work. Zambory says nurses are burnt out, physically and mentally exhausted.

“They are absolutely petrified there is going to be a catastrophic event because they know there’s people sitting in a waiting room that are gravely ill and could possibly pass away,” she said.

Zambory says nurses she’s spoke with are going home having panic attacks, can’t sleep or function with their families because they’re worried about the situations they’re facing at work.

“There’s people working 20 hour shifts because there aren’t enough people coming to replace them anywhere,” she said.

Zambory is calling on the province to take more action in order to retain mid to late career nurses that say “the system is broken.”

PROVINCE’S PLAN

On Friday, The Ministry of Health said the Saskatchewan Health Authority is responding with a province-wide approach to support emergency rooms and EMS coverage levels across the province.

The approach includes several things such as working with physicians and leaders to consider regional centres as close to a patient’s home as possible for care.

The province says the overcapacity within inpatient units in Saskatoon, and a “lesser extent” in Regina, is resulting in challenges to provide tertiary emergency care.

Work on the four-point plan is underway and includes the creation of the Saskatchewan Healthcare Recruitment Agency.

Ministers Merriman and Hindley have met with unions and visited hospitals throughout the province this summer. Zambory says what has come from their visits has not been shared with anyone who works at the hospitals.