CIHI: Half of Saskatoon hospital beds go unused due to Sask. Party mismanagement

SASKATOON - Today, Official Opposition Leader Carla Beck and Health Critic Vicki Mowat responded to an alarming study by the Canadian Institute of Health Information. According to the most recent provincial government data, approximately half of Saskatoon hospital beds went unused due to Sask. Party mismanagement.

“This province used to be a nation-leader in healthcare. I truly believe we can do it again, but it’ll take new ideas and a new government to fix what’s broken,” said Beck. “The Sask. Party has had 17 years to get it right and our hospitals have never felt more broken.”

CIHI calculated occupancy rates for hospital beds or cribs that are staffed and in use based on the most recent provincial government data from 2022-23.

Data from hundreds of Canadian hospitals and health centers indicates that the average occupancy rate across the country was 76%. When averaged together, the occupancy rates of Saskatoon’s hospitals is 52%.

Saskatoon Hospitals	Occupancy Rate
Royal University/Jim Pattison’s Children’s Hospital	54%
St. Paul’s Hospital	66%
Saskatoon City Hospital	36%

Among reporting children’s hospitals in Canada, Saskatoon’s Jim Pattison is an outlier when it comes to occupancy rates, owing in part to a lack of specialists and families traveling out of province for care that used to be offered at home.

Canadian Children’s Hospitals	Occupancy Rate
Royal University/Jim Pattison’s Children’s Hospital	54%
Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario	69%
CHU Sainte-Justine, Quebec	74%
Hospital for Sick Children, Ontario	76%
Alberta Children's Hospital	83%

“We don’t want our hospitals to be completely full all the time, but they should run smoothly and that’s just not happening,” said Mowat. “Healthcare workers on the frontlines are the ones who know our hospitals the best, but this government just isn’t listening to them. It’s time for a change.”

In a new online campaign, the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses says that Saskatchewan hospitals are buckling under staff shortages and mismanagement, leading to hallway healthcare and long wait times.

Beck’s Saskatchewan NDP committed to listening to healthcare workers and striking the healthcare task force they’re calling for, something the Moe government has refused to implement since 2022.

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