'A perfect storm': Sask. nurses rally for action on staffing shortages, hospital overcrowding

Hundreds of Saskatchewan nurses and their supporters rallied outside the legislative building on Thursday calling for action to ongoing staffing shortages and hospital overcrowding around the province.

According to a September survey referenced by the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN), 86 per cent of registered nurses are reporting patient risk due to staff shortages. The survey also found that 60 per cent of registered nurses have considered leaving the profession in the last 12 months.

(JasonDelesoy/CTVNews)

“It’s a perfect storm for a catastrophe in the making,” SUN president Tracy Zambory said in a news release. “I hear from SUN members lamenting their career choice almost daily, describing their severe moral distress from being unable to provide the safe care patients need or saying they’ve never wanted to leave the profession more.”

According to Zambory, Saskatchewan is short about 700 full-time registered nurses. 

The union has called for greater frontline engagement aimed at nurse retention and recruitment for the past two years.

Zambory said it’s not uncommon to see beds lining hospital hallways and critical care happening in waiting room chairs due to ongoing overcapacity issues.

According to Zambory, emergency rooms are routinely 200 per cent over capacity. SUN data also indicated that the emergency room at Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital reached 350 per cent capacity on Tuesday night. 

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“It’s not only big city emergencies; patients are suffering everywhere – postponed surgeries, excessive and stressful waits for lifesaving diagnostics and treatments, and widespread rural service disruptions,” she said in the release.

(JasonDelesoy/CTVNews) SUN represents 11,000 Registered Nurses, Registered Psychiatric Nurses, and Nurse Practitioners in the province.

Speaking at a campaign announcement in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan Party leader Scott Moe said hospital overcrowding is a "challenge," and he is committed to working with healthcare professionals to improve the system, if re-elected.

"We will commit to ensuring that happens into the future," Moe said. "And we are starting to have results, but there's more work to do."

NDP candidate Vicki Mowat says Moe can't be trusted to fix the health care system and promised that an NDP government would open the Saskatoon hospital 24 hours a day and hire more workers. 

Moe says more staff are being hired thanks to a program the Sask. Party launched in 2022. 

--With files from Keenan Sorokan and The Canadian Press.