Sask NDP will open Saskatoon City Hospital emergency room 24/7
For immediate release: September 24, 2024
Sask NDP will open Saskatoon City Hospital emergency room 24/7
“It’s time for a change. It’s time to get Saskatchewan out of last place on health care.”
SASKATOON – Today, Provincial Opposition Health Critic Vicki Mowat and Rural and Remote Health Critic Jared Clarke – joined by Saskatoon healthcare workers – committed to opening the Saskatoon City Hospital emergency room 24/7 as part of the Saskatchewan NDP’s plan to get Saskatchewan out of last place on healthcare.
“We have sick patients stuck in hallways, breaking fire code, while Saskatoon's City Hospital has underutilised space where they could be properly cared for. We built it. We should use it,” said Mowat.
City Hospital, opened by the Saskatchewan NDP government in 1993, is not being fully used by the Sask. Party, despite chaos and overcrowding at St Paul’s and Royal University hospitals. Opening the City Hospital emergency room 24/7 would take pressure off of Saskatoon’s other hospitals and lead to better care faster.
Part of the Saskatchewan NDP’s strategy to extend the hours of City Hospital to 24/7 — and keep it open around the clock — would involve striking a healthcare taskforce to address patient flows and find alternative care solutions, something frontline health care workers have been calling for. This would build emergency room capacity in Saskatoon and right across the province.
Mowat and Clarke also repeated the Saskatchewan NDP’s commitment to phase out expensive out-of-province contractors and hire more full-time nurses and doctors to ramp up emergency room hours.
“The Sask. Party broke our health system and can't be trusted to fix it. We’ve have patients in hallways, if they can get a bed at all,” said Clarke. “It’s time for a change. Emergencies aren’t confined to office hours. It’s time to get Saskatchewan out of last place on health care."
Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck kicked off her campaign for change earlier this month with a guarantee to not raise taxes and will soon release a fully-costed platform that balances the budget in her first term.
According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Saskatchewan is last place in Canada for wait times and health care worker retention.
