Sask. Health Authority adding beds to Regina General Hospital to address capacity issues

To address capacity issues in Regina, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) says it will be implementing additional services, including more beds, at the Regina General Hospital (RGH).

On Thursday, the SHA announced the Regina Capacity Pressure Action Plan (RCPAP), to tackle immediate pressures facing capacity in Regina hospitals, according to a news release from the SHA.

“Ongoing work to address capacity challenges in both Saskatoon and Regina will have a provincial benefit given the interconnectedness of regional and community hospitals,” Derek Miller, SHA Chief Operating Officer, said during a press conference on Thursday.

Over the next 90 days, the SHA says it will work to add more staff within acute care to free up beds quicker, add more palliative home care resources, open four more high-acuity beds at the RGH, increase adherence to current overcapacity protocols, and increase chronic disease supports.

“The traditional care beds that we are opening up in the next 90 days will be very important. We do have patients that are in our hospital right now that need a little bit of extra care before they can go back out into their home or into other community settings,” said Sheila Anderson, SHA Vice-President of Integrated Regina Health.

On Wednesday, a leaked assessment from Regina’s fire services stated that overcrowding in emergency room corridors are violating national fire codes.

“We are looking at different ways in order to be able to make sure that we meet the fire code and ensure a safe environment,” Miller said. “We’re still working through what some of those more detailed actions might be.”

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The plan is designed by the SHA with collaboration from Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health.

These new initiatives are in addition to recent actions over the past years to improve hospital capacity.

Those include the addition of 28 medicine beds, the addition of emergency room staff, the addition of four general internal medicine admitting physician full-time positions, the addition of six high acuity beds at RGH, adding two 24/7 staffed ambulances, six hospice beds at Wascana Rehab Centre and the announcement of an additional community policing and crisis team.

Regna’s Urgent Care Centre, which is scheduled to open in 2024, is also expected to alleviate capacity issues at both hospitals.

Last month, the SHA announced improvements to capacity in Saskatoon hospitals as part of its Saskatoon Capacity Pressure Action Plan (SCPAP), including the addition of 285 permanent staff and 81 temporary staff.