HUNDREDS OF FRONTLINE NURSES, DOCTORS, MEDICAL DIRECTORS SIGN LETTER DEMANDING ACTION TO END CRISIS AT ROYAL UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

Patients Crammed Into Hallways At Overrun Hospital A Daily Occurrence

SASKATOON – A scathing letter signed by 450 frontline healthcare workers, including senior level directors, has been released demanding emergency action to address horrific conditions inside Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospita

The letter, addressed to Sask. Party Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill and released online Tuesday, says that “hallway care, unsafe patient loads, and moral distress among dedicated professionals doing their best under impossible conditions” have become daily occurrences.

“Nurses, doctors and medical directors are begging for help, and this government is pretending not to hear them,” said Keith Jorgenson, Saskatchewan NDP Associate Shadow Minister for Health. “For months, healthcare professionals have laid out practical, workable solutions to fix the chaos in our hospitals, and the Sask. Party has done nothing.

“I want to thank these 450 incredibly brave healthcare professionals for speaking out, demanding change in healthcare for their well-being and for the well-being of the patients they’re caring for.”

Devastating footage and photos have emerged over several weeks showing the conditions inside RUH. Accounts have emerged of patients undergoing serious medical treatments, such as spinal taps, in hallways and others have received terminal cancer diagnoses without any privacy from their fellow patients. The letter describes the conditions as “exacerbating moral injury across the emergency sector.”

The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, which published the letter, says detailed proposals have submitted to ease the pressure at RUH over a period of 18 months — to date, nothing tangible has happened to ease the crisis.

“Saskatchewan is the birthplace of Medicare — but 18 years of Sask. Party failures has driven healthcare here to dead last in all of Canada,” Jorgenson said. “Either Jeremy Cockrill steps forward with an emergency plan to end the suffering and stress at RUH today or he submits his resignation because he either can’t do his job or is refusing to.

“People are going to die because of his failures. It’s time for big bold change to fix healthcare in Saskatchewan.”

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