Doctor calls temporary closure of Saskatoon ER 'a red flag'

Emergency room staff at a Saskatoon hospital struggled to serve patients Tuesday evening due to a shortage of doctors.

Emergency room staff at a Saskatoon hospital struggled to serve patients due to a shortage of doctors.

On Tuesday evening, a sign at the entrance to City Hospital alerted patients they may be asked to go to another hospital due to a "temporary disruption."

According to a Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) statement, there was an "unexpected temporary shortage of emergency department physicians due to illness."

"During this limited service reduction, patients continued to be triaged by emergency department staff and an emergency department physician remained on site to assess, treat and support patients," the SHA statement said.

Brittany Ellis has been working as an emergency room physician in Saskatoon for five years and says she's never heard of an emergency room in Saskatoon having to partially close for a few hours.

"This is a red flag," she said. "Our system has been doing its best to cope. Our departments, my colleagues, we've all been doing our best to cope for months (and) years. And these are signs that it's not coping anymore."

City Hospital's emergency room is open from 9 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. every day. The Saskatchewan Health Authority says the disruption began at 5 p.m. Ellis couldn't confirm if any patients were turned away because of the staff shortage.