Leaked SHA memo says Saskatoon hospitals over capacity, calls for urgent action

An internal Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) memo leaked to the provincial Opposition NDP describes a critical lack of beds in Saskatoon hospitals and asks for support from across the province.

The memo, released to SHA staff on Friday morning, reported that leadership had set a target of freeing 30 acute care spaces by end of day.

The memo said 79 patients were awaiting placement at Royal University Hospital and St. Paul's Hospital.

"It is anticipated that other teams across the province will be ready to respond to requests and actions coming out of this next meeting," it noted, referring to a meeting scheduled later that day.

SHA released another memo, this one from Thursday, Oct. 31, to media after the Friday memo was released by the Sask. NDP. It showed the health authority had begun responding to the situation formally on Thursday.

The Thursday memo announced a command centre had been set up in Saskatoon to respond to the situation.

"We will be working to safely move these patients needing long-term care into facilities where space is available," said the Thursday memo, sent by the executive director of acute care in Saskatoon.

NDP leader Ryan Meili held a press conference in Saskatoon Tuesday, telling reporters that while this situation is acute and needs to be dealt with, it is part of a continuing problem in Saskatchewan hospitals.

"They can only put a put a Band-Aid on what is a much larger wound in our health care system," he said.

"This isn't going to be fixed in 36 hours. It's going to keep occurring over and over again."

Health Minister Jim Reiter addressed the issue after question period Tuesday, acknowledging the urgent need for change. He said the province will review SHA's recommendations when they are submitted.

He said the emergency room issue has come up often since 2016 and the ministry has responded.

"We've added medical beds at Pasqua Hospital here, we announced this summer we're adding a 36-bed unit at RUH," he said

"The last week has been bad so we need to deal with it."

Walk-in clinics an alternative

SHA said it is working to determine which current patients can be moved out of hospital and into long term care or alternate levels of care.

All three adult emergency departments in Saskatoon are affected, according to a news release issued Tuesday.

While patients will not be turned away from the emergency department, the release asks people to go to one of Saskatoon's walk-in clinics if the issue isn't urgent.

Meili called for a full review of emergency care and investment into more long-term and home care options, which the Opposition has already been pushing for.

A new emergency room at the Jim Pattison Children's Hospital hasn't helped much, he said.

"This new emergency room is larger in space but not much larger in number of beds, so its actual capacity to adapt to increased need is extremely limited," said Meili

He said the problem isn't emergency rooms, it's a bottleneck in hospitals created by lack of primary care and support for addictions.