Saskatchewan nurses union hits back at province on overcrowding in hospital hallways

SASKATOON – The head of Saskatchewan’s nurses union fired back at the provincial health authority Monday, saying there’s nothing seasonal about patient overcrowding in a hallway inside the province’s largest hospital. 

Bryce Boynton, the president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, said the Saskatchewan Health Authority is misinforming the public about the issue at Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon.

The health authority had said the seasonal flu along with other compounding factors had led to hallway overcrowding, but Boynton said it’s been a problem for years in the city’s hospitals.  

“I’d like the (health authority) to stop gaslighting our members and the front-line nurses,” Boynton said. “I’d like them to acknowledge the expertise we have at the front lines, acknowledge what they’re saying and work with them to overcome these issues.”

Earlier this month, video footage posted to social media showed beds lining the wall of the hospital hallway with no privacy for patients, forcing the health authority to respond to concerns. 

The video also showed staff helping patients, elevators not working and a coffee cup on the floor. 

In a statement Monday, the health authority stood by its reasons for overcrowding, again saying it’s a result of seasonal flu and other issues.

The authority said it’s working to add more acute care beds in Saskatoon, including 109 beds at Saskatoon City Hospital over the next year.

“This expansion at the Saskatoon City Hospital will help ease pressures at the Royal University Hospital,” it said.

However, Boynton said some of the beds aren’t really new. A spokesperson for the union said 40 overcapacity beds, which already had patients in them, were renamed as transitional beds and put into a ward.

“The idea is truly a smoke-and-mirrors effect,” Boynton said. “It isn’t totally truthful in that they are new beds. They’re just repurposed.” 

The union has shared emails from nurses angered by the province’s response to how it’s handling hallway medicine. 

In one email, a nurse says using hallways are now routine, so much so they’ve been given names like “E pod” and “F pod.”

“What next? Are we going all the way to Z?” the nurse wrote. “What will it take before the Sask. Party (government) and SHA executives acknowledge the problem and actually work with staff to fix it?”

Another nurse wrote the health authority’s response appeared to be minimizing concerns, calling it “purely deception.”

The Opposition NDP said Monday that Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill should visit the hospital and take the crisis seriously. 

“Patients deserve better, health-care workers deserve better, you deserve better,” associate health critic Keith Jorgenson told reporters. “The solution is more health-care providers, more space to treat (patients) in.”

The health authority said the current three-month average of patients waiting in emergency departments for admission is 12 per cent lower than the same period in 2024 and 17 per cent lower than in 2023. 

It also said the province has provided $460 million since 2022 to recruit, retain and train health-care workers. From April 2023 to December 2024, it said nearly 350 new physicians started practising in the province and 2,000 nursing graduates were hired. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 6, 2025.

— By Jeremy Simes in Regina