NDP Associate Shadow Minister for Health Keith Jorgenson is speaking out after a patient was allegedly treated for encephalitis in a hallway at Royal University Hospital (RUH) due to a lack of available beds.

According to Jorgenson, the patient, a 36-year-old man was taken to RUH, where he was diagnosed with encephalitis and received a spinal tap, had a central line put in his jugular vein, two x-rays, two CT scans, an EEG, an ECG and a blood plasma exchange in a section of the hallway labelled Pod E due to it frequently being used to treat patients.

Jorgenson says that even hospital staff are upset about the conditions that the man had to receive life-saving care in.

“The nurse that was caring for them apparently told them that she believed this is a new low in our healthcare system and I couldn’t agree more”

Jorgenson adds that he wants to see the provincial government take action to ensure patients can receive treatment in a more suitable space. He hopes that if Minister of Health Jeremy Cockrill and the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) tour the facility, they will see what changes need to be made.

“Come to RUH’s emergency ward, and tour it on a bad day, which I think is most days, and talk to the staff. Listen to the staff. And lastly, come up with a plan to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”

News of the instance came out just over a week after the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) disputed the SHA’s claim that flu season was behind the crowded conditions at RUH. The patient who received treatment for encephalitis was treated in August.