Saskatchewan's largest hospital hits crisis point as overstuffed ER runs out of stretchers and oxygen
CTV
Staff at Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital are calling for systemic changes just two days after its emergency room was more than three times above its capacity.
Staff at Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital (RUH) are calling for systemic changes just two days after its emergency room was more than three times above its capacity.
"It's worse than it ever has been," NDP Saskatoon Fairview candidate Vicki Mowat said outside of the hospital Thursday morning.
"We don't have time to wait for help. When you have admitted patients in a hospital that don't even have a chair to sit in, things are at a breaking point."
According to data from the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN), the RUH emergency room was at 350 per cent capacity overnight Tuesday — with 121 patients for 35 beds.
The union says there were 50 patients admitted with no beds, 25 people being treated in hallway beds and 10 ambulances were delayed in the paramedic bay treating patients because there was nowhere for them to go.
Mowat said the hospital ran out of stretchers and oxygen as other nearby healthcare facilities weren't accepting patients any longer. Patients outnumbered RUH nursing staff 14 to one.
