'Crisis point': NDP slams province over crowded emergency rooms, long hospital wait times

The NDP released a photo showing an admitted patient at St. Paul's Hospital emergency room who waited over 140 hours for a bed, which is more than five days. 

On Tuesday, NDP official opposition healthcare critic Vicki Mowat spoke about overcrowding and wait times in Saskatoon emergency departments.

She said that morning conditions had reached a "crisis point" and healthcare workers were asking her to speak out about it.

 The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) said the system is at its worst.

SUN reported on social media that there were 41 admitted patients with no beds at St. Paul's; using ambulance beds, hallway beds and the waiting room instead.

"They're worried that there's going to be a death, a serious illness, something that happens on their watch that not only would they morally have to deal with, but also in terms of their license, could also be at risk," said Mowat.

"There are some very serious concerns about the situation that this is putting our healthcare workers in."

Mowat said there needs to be a nurse task force that SUN has been asking for and that frontline workers need to be heard.

When asked by CBC if the NDP has calculated a dollar amount that needs to be put into the healthcare system to fix it, Mowat said the party needs to have those conversations and more will come out as it releases its platform in the coming months.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) said "ongoing work" is being done to address the over capacity emergency room issues.

"Our intention is to always care for patients in an appropriate care environment, eliminating the use of hallway beds in our emergency departments whenever possible. However, capacity pressures can ebb and flow meaning we must also adapt to meet demand, while providing safe, high quality care at all times," the SHA stated in an email.

The SHA cited its Saskatoon capacity pressure action plan and how progress continues with that initiative.

In November, the SHA announced a plan to address overcrowding in Saskatoon hospitals, which included one, three and six month goals.

The health authority's statement ends by saying the action its taken so far with the capacity plan has a meaningful impact.

SUN president Tracy Zambory said the capacity plan is not working, and that the problem has only got worse since that "promise" was made by the SHA.

"They're starting to call just regular chairs that people sitting in the waiting room, 'treatment chairs,' well, they're not, they're just a regular chair where someone is sitting who was extremely ill, where the registered nurse is now being forced to give care there," said Zambory.

Zambory said she wants frontline workers to be listened to, and that the SHA is not doing that.

The SHA said its leadership team members have been physically present in all emergency departments in the city and hear the concerns, and are working with healthcare workers to address the capacity issues.

"When registered nurses are telling us that if that isn't the largest red flag in alarm bell, I don't know what it is for people to stand up and take notice and finally figure out we've got to actually do something here instead of just put out plans that that are just full of, you know, unfulfilled promises," said Zambory.

"Not only have they [nurses] lost hope, but they've lost complete confidence in the leadership, the SHA and the leadership of this province."