Saskatchewan nurses are fed up with the state of health-care in the province.
“How do you safely care for patients in a busy emergency room when you are routinely 200 per cent over-capacity, beds line hallways, and critical care happens out in the open in waiting room chairs, all while you are working seven registered nurses short?” Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) president Tracy Zambory asks.
“But it’s not only big city emergencies; patients are suffering everywhere – postponed surgeries, excessive and stressful waits for life-saving diagnostics and treatments, and widespread rural service disruptions.”
On Thursday, hundreds of nurses rallied in front of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building demanding action on staffing shortages.
Vicki Mowat, a candidate for the NDP, said data from SUN shows the emergency room at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital had reached 350 per cent capacity Tuesday night.
SUN said 86 per cent of registered nurses are reporting patient risk due to short staffing.
Registered nurses, doctors, teachers and members of the public rallied in Regina for better health care services.
Sarah Jones / Global News
According to findings from a September Praxis Analytics survey of 1,569 SUN members, 60 per cent have considered leaving the profession in the last 12 months.
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The Saskatchewan Healthcare Employees’ Pension Plan (SHEPP) reports that more than 2,000 registered nurses are now eligible for retirement.
“It’s a perfect storm for a catastrophe in the making,” Zambory said. “I hear from SUN members lamenting their career choice almost daily, describing their severe moral distress from being unable to provide the safe care patients need or saying they’ve never wanted to leave the profession more.”
For almost two years, SUN has called for greater front-line engagement to develop and implement solutions aimed at registered nurse retention and recruitment.
“Registered nurses have a proud history of standing up for patients in the province, and that’s never going to change,” Zambory said. “This election our message is clear: safe staffing gets my vote.”
Health-care reform is one of the key issues in the provincial election, which will see voters go to the polls Oct. 28.
Mowat said it’s Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe’s fault the hospital and other health-care facilities in the province are stressed, and believes he can’t be trusted to fix the problem.
Mowat has promised an NDP government would open the Saskatoon hospital 24 hours a day, along with recruiting and retaining more workers.
Moe has said his health-care plan, launched two years ago, has hired more staff to provide relief to the system.
Mowat said Moe’s plan is not working.
“Our Saskatoon emergencies are overrun and understaffed, leaving families to fend for themselves,” she said in a statement Thursday.
“Scott Moe and the Sask. Party have spent years starving our hospitals.”
Global News reached out to the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) for comment on the nurses’ rally.
“The 2024 Saskatchewan Provincial Election is set to occur on October 28. During the election period, the SHA will be taking steps to ensure our organization remains non-partisan and is not involved of matters that are or could be perceived as matters of political debate,” the statement reads.
SHA pointed to the Saskatoon and Regina capacity action plans, which they say have helped address health-care pressures and capacity issues.