Guy Pollock spent days in a busy hallway waiting to receive care for pneumonia. On account of being immunocompromised, he says he feared for his life as thousands of people passed by his bed.
“This story is heartbreaking and it’s not an isolated case,” said Keith Jorgenson, Saskatchewan NDP Associate Shadow Minister for Health, who joined members of the media for a press conference in Pollock’s living room on Thursday.
“After 18 years of the Sask. Party, our hospitals are reaching a breaking point. Healthcare workers are scared that they can’t provide the care people need. Patients are scared to get sick and end up in a Saskatchewan hospital.”
Hallway healthcare has become a growing symptom of a health system stretched beyond capacity, with staff forced to provide care in unsafe and undignified spaces.
Footage of the patients lining the hallways adjoining the RUH emergency room have gone viral online, amassing hundreds of thousands of views.
“Once I was admitted they said they were moving me, so I figured I was going into a room. They moved me into a hallway.” Said Guy Pollock, a 71-year-old patient at RUH suffering from pneumonia. “The situation in the hallway is traumatic. I was almost to the point of panic.”
Early this week, approximately 450 healthcare workers have even taken the historic step of penning open letter to the Heath Minister calling for change.
“Minister Cockrill needs to listen to these frontline healthcare workers and patients like Guy who have seen our health system firsthand,” said Jorgenson. “He needs to visit RUH himself and see just how bad the situation is.
“We need big, bold change to get our hospitals moving in the right direction again.”
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