Last month, Anne Fournier spent three consecutive days in a bed in the hallway adjacent to Royal University Hospital’s emergency room before being admitted to a room, and the experience was troubling. “There was no washroom near where they placed us. And because most people were unable to walk, I had to watch as two grown men had to urinate next to me with portable urinals in full view of us in the hallway, and anybody else who happened to be walking past. It was disgusting, and not at all what I imagined to see when getting healthcare in Saskatchewan,” Fournier said. Fournier went to the ER after vomiting blood. She later learned it was caused by an inflamed small intestine. The Saskatoon resident said while she was thankful to eventually be admitted to a room, she was deeply concerned by the time she spent waiting in the hallway. “I didn’t get the treatment I needed for those first three days properly because I was in a hallway. They couldn’t give the medication I needed. They couldn’t monitor me like they were meant to. So, I felt utterly horrible as it was, it wasn’t till I finally got to the ward that I started to get a bit of relief,” Fournier said. She added that the conditions in the hallway left her worried for the next patients forced to wait for a room. “The entire time I spent in this hallway, not once did someone come and clean it. I even took photos on my cell phone because I was shocked and disgusted by the state of our hospitals. I could barely sleep because I always kept the lights on 24/ seven, and there was constant loud banging from the ER door all through the night... There was no privacy, curtains, nothing. We were head to toe squashed in in those beds next to each other,” Fournier said. Fournier estimated that she was one of roughly 12 beds in the hallway, and the experience prompted her to write an email to the provincial government and the health minister, to which she has not received a response. “It’s got so much worse and nothing seems to be done about it. It’s like ‘it will rectify itself’. But that’s not how it works. It can’t be rectified in a certain extent. We need to retain members of staff...we need to be attracting medical people,” Fournier said. Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said he regularly visits healthcare facilities across the province and that the “extended stays in hospital hallways are not the experience we want for any Saskatchewan patient.” “Our government is listening to patients and healthcare workers and their feedback informed our Patient’s First Healthcare Plan which includes detailed next steps for improving access to hospital, emergency and urgent care,” he said in a statement. Cockrill went on to cite plans to expand inpatient capacity in Saskatoon hospitals by 146 beds, including the addition of 24 new beds at St. Paul’s Hospital, 36 beds at Royal University Hospital and 69 new acute care beds at Saskatoon City Hospital. He added that he also plans to correspond directly with Fournier regarding her email. “It would just be nice to get like a genuine response, like an actual genuine ‘I’m really sorry. I understand. I’ve heard this a few times now. We are actively going to be doing something to rectify this’, but it never seems to happen,” Fournier said. Fournier emphasized that she saw the RUH nurses working hard to meet the demands of the overcrowded ER, but she noticed the visible frustration among healthcare workers. “I think that paints a pretty sad picture. They’re doing what they were trained to do. They actually go into care because they want to care for people. They can’t do their job, and then that breaks them as a person. They want to do their job and they cannot do it, so that’s heartbreaking,” Fournier said. Bryce Boynton, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, told CTV News that situations like this one are becoming increasingly common and frustrating for healthcare workers. “Not only are you stuck in a hallway and completely stripped of dignity and your ability to have privacy, but you’re also being put in a position that could lead to harm. You know, these hallways are not equipped with the necessary equipment to respond to emergencies if things go south for a patient,” Boynton said. Boynton added that hospital overcrowding is a major contributing factor when it comes to the retention issues that the nursing industry is facing. “I don’t blame them for wanting to leave at that point. You know, it’s so unfair to constantly put this choice in front of them, provide good care or just do the basic necessities to get by. It’s just really unfair to them. It’s unfair to the patients. And it’s leading to a major recruitment and, retention issue,” Boynton said. The SUN president said that while more urgent care centres would be helpful, they will only take stress off of emergency rooms if there is adequate staff to work in them. “We’re seeing these urgent care centres come into play. And it’s a great [idea] in theory, it’s an amazing idea. But the issue is we’re putting up all this infrastructure, but we don’t have the staffing to support it,” Boynton said. Boynton emphasized that overcrowded emergency rooms are a predominant example of stress on the healthcare system, but many struggles throughout the system are also contributing to the strain. “It’s about addressing all of the community services around it. And so we need to make sure we’re doing a good job in supporting all of these areas of care, not just focusing on the emergency room. We need to focus on all aspects that bleed into it,” Boynton said.
