Nurses continue holding rallies around Saskatchewan for better working conditions in emergency rooms (ERs).Healthcare workers rallied outside St. Paul's Hospital in Saskatoon.Stephanie Fehr, a nurse at St. Paul's Hospital, said the ER is always full. "We're at 200% capacity every day," Fehr told the media.Fehr warned about what could happen if Saskatchewan had to deal with a mass casualty event. "If there was a mass casualty event, we would call a code orange in the hospital and people would die," said Fehr."We just don't have capacity. We don't have emergency space." .Sask NDP promises healthcare overhaul, Sask Party skips nurses convention.Sask NDP leader Carla Beck joined the rally and talked about a recent close call. Last week, a plane carrying 122 people to Saskatoon had engine trouble. At the same time, the ER at Royal University Hospital was at 350% capacity."For years, healthcare workers have been warning Scott Moe and the Sask Party that there is zero excess capacity should there be a mass casualty event," said Beck.Beck promised changes if her party wins the next election. They would hire more ER staff across Saskatchewan and open Saskatoon City Hospital's ER 24/7..GORMLEY: In Saskatchewan, NDP calls for change, but what change?."The healthcare system is at a breaking point," said Beck. She pointed out that people are dying while waiting for care or left in hallways.Beck also wants to create an online dashboard to tell people when ERs close unexpectedly.Saskatchewan Party leader Scott Moe defended his government's actions. He said they have a plan to fix the problem, the Health Human Resource Action Plan."We've hired 1,400 nurses in the last 18 months," Moe said at a news conference. "And we need to make that plan even more ambitious than it is today to ensure that we are decreasing any disruption that we are seeing, wherever they might be.".Sask NDP to investigate $203M healthcare payroll system debacle.But Beck disagrees. She thinks Moe's comments are "simply insulting" to health workers. "Scott Moe and the Saskatchewan Party still refuse to even admit that there's a problem. We simply have to change this. We have to get Saskatchewan out of last place," said Beck.Last year, the Saskatchewan Health Authority announced it would hire hundreds of permanent healthcare staff to help busy and overcrowded ERs.Saskatchewan voters head to the polls on October 28.
