The Saskatchewan Health Authority is setting the record straight following a claim from the NDP that Saskatoon’s emergency departments were at max capacity this weekend and Monday. 

Monday morning, Health Critic Vicki Mowat claimed that all major hospitals in Saskatoon were placed on ‘bypass’ early Sunday morning, meaning all emergency rooms in the city were not accepting patients. She says this likely means patients were ‘sent down the highway’ in search of alternative care. 

“Hospital occupancy reports from March 29th confirm there were no available beds across all Saskatoon hospitals,” she explains. “When every hospital in our largest city is overwhelmed to the point where patients are being turned away and sent hours up the highway, it’s not just a system in crisis. It’s a system in complete failure.”

However, in response, Derek Miller with the SHA stated that at no point this weekend were all Saskatoon hospitals on bypass or closed to patients. He says ‘bypass’ only means that patients from other centres are not to be diverted to Saskatoon, as local residents are being prioritized, likely due to bed or physician availability. 

“When Saskatoon is on critical care bypass, it is used to direct ICU admissions coming from hospitals outside the Saskatoon region to other sites in the province where there is capacity, including Prince Albert, North Battleford, Yorkton, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, and Regina.”

Miller underscores the fact that during this period, “Saskatoon continues to maintain ICU capacity to care for patients from within the city who require critical care.”    

However, The SHA adds that one patient from outside the city was diverted elsewhere during this period.