There are 163 patients in Saskatoon’s hospitals who don’t need to be there, but there is nowhere for them to go. That’s according to the NDP Critic for Seniors, Matt Love, who stated during Question Period that the government used to have a fully funded patient initiative to address this, but it’s no longer happening.  In relation to this, he mentioned that last week Janna Pratt, the mother of a four year old child with brain cancer visited the Legislature. Jream spent nearly 20 hours in a Regina emergency room bed waiting for a space in the pediatric unit and Pratt says that during that wait, there wasn’t a lot of care. She was later told by nurses that they were short-staffed.

Minister for Rural and Remote Health and for Seniors, Everett Hindley, says the answer is finding more long term care spaces and that’s what they are doing.
He noted the budget includes $750-million in annual funding for long term care and $18-million for capital improvements.