Hallways Filled With Patients In Agony, As Sask. Party Downplays Crisis, Gaslights Frontline Workers
SASKATOON – The Saskatchewan NDP is demanding an immediate investigation into workplace safety following an unprecedented open letter from hundreds of frustrated healthcare workers and videos circulating online vividly detailing an overrun Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon.
For weeks, stories have emerged of patients being forced to wait days, even weeks, in the hallways of the hospital emergency room because there are no available rooms. People have told the Official Opposition heartbreaking stories of their loved ones receiving devastating cancer diagnoses in the hallways without any privacy from fellow patients. Hundreds of healthcare workers have even signed their names to an open letter calling for change.
Footage and firsthand testimonials of the RUH have shown an unsafe workplace with patient-filled beds and fragile medical equipment obstructing hallways used by emergency room staff. Previously, patient ratios at the hospital have been as high as 20 per nurse.
Under [https://provide%20a%20safe%20and%20healthy%20workplace;%20establish%20and%20maintain%20an%20effective%20health%20and%20safety%20program%20and%20obtain%20input%20from%20the%20occupational%20health%20committee%20(ohc);%20make%20sure%20that%20managers%20and%20supervisors%20are%20trained,%20supported,%20and%20held%20accountable%20for%20fulfilling%20their%20workplace%20health%20and%20safety%20requirements/]The Saskatchewan Employment Act, an employer must provide a safe and healthy workplace.
“This is horrifying — the emergency department at Royal University Hospital looks like a warzone,” said Nathaniel Teed, Saskatchewan NDP Shadow Minister for Labour. “I can’t help but fear for frontline healthcare workers, who have clearly been abandoned by the Sask. Party Government.
“Today, I am calling on the Minister responsible for Workplace Safety Jim Reiter to launch an emergency investigation into the conditions at Royal University Hospital. This is about the safety of these workers and the patients they’re doing in their power to care for.”
The Sask. Party has ignored repeated calls to intervene in the RUH crisis over the past several weeks. Instead, the government has dispatched the Saskatchewan Health Authority, whose senior ranks are filled Sask. Party donors and campaign managers, to lie repeatedly about the conditions in the hospital, claiming the fall flu season was to blame — nurses have repeatedly debunked those claims and claimed they’re being gaslit.
“The Sask. Party-run health authority hasn’t done a thing to address this crisis,” said Keith Jorgenson, Saskatchewan NDP Associate Shadow Health Minister. “Patients deserve better and frontline healthcare workers deserve better.
“The Sask. Party drove healthcare here into last place in all of Canada and now have seemingly stopped even trying to fix it. It’s time for big bold change — it’s time for a healthcare system that actually serves people and supports incredible frontline workers.”
The Saskatchewan NDP has launched a broad consultation on the future of healthcare at YourCareYourSay.ca.
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