NDP criticizes health care spending after water leaks at RUH

NDP leader Cam Broten said water leaks at Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital over the holidays points to misplaced spending in health care.

Vice-president Sandra Blevins says a water leak was found New Year's Eve near a back-up generator.
Some surgeries were diverted to City Hospital until the generator could be tested.And a toilet seal failed -- causing a leak from one bathroom floor to the ceiling below.

"They have not addressed the concerns at RUH. They have not done that," Broten said Tuesday. "We see a building that is falling apart, that is not working. And we see a government that is ignoring what needs to be done."

The Saskatoon Health Region (SHR) held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon to respond. Sandra Blevins, vice president of Integrated Health Services with SHR, told reporters that over Christmas RUH did have "infrastructure issues".

When asked if the funding from the province is sufficient, Blevins explained that RUHis frequentlyin need of repair, in one area or another.

"I think what we are constantly fixed with is that it is a very large tab to restore it to the state where we would be fully functioning and we acknowledge that every day, every week we're dealing with an infrastructure issue that we are undertaking to improve upon," Blevins said. "Our commitment is not limited by numbers,we won't let something sit that is unsafe or broken but we continue to have to re-prioritize andget at the job of the day."

Meanwhile, the health region is also coping with a spike in patient volumes.

Blevins told reporters that Saskatoon's threehospitals -- but primarily RUH and St. Paul's -- had been "under this pressure point for over two months and it peaked forus on December 8". Blevins went on to explained that typically the hospitalsseea dip in patients in the week leading up to Christmas, but that did not happen this year.

"At the end of November [we had] 1324 increase in our volumes of patient days, adults and children, 1324 more days thanthe previous year, Blevins said."Ourend of December numbers 3952 patient days, so that's a 66 per cent year-to-date increase over last year."

Blevins said this situation combined with high instances of influenza, cardiac arrest, and staff sickness has lead to problems, including overcrowding.

When asked if ambulances had been backed up out front of RUH, with nowhere to take patients, Blevins confirmed that was a reality hospital staff has dealt with.

"We do have a backlog of emergency vehicles, at times, when there is no physical space to come in. They will come into the hallway, they'll care with their patient in the hallway before they are able to transfer."

The NDP saidthese issuesare symptoms of the government's misplaced spending priorities in health care.