SASKATOON — Mark Shyluk is convinced the province’s healthcare system needs urgent improvement, after seeing what his 88-year-old father, Jerry, went through, spending almost five days on a hospital bed in the emergency department’s hallway at St. Paul’s Hospital.
Shyluk, who shared his family’s experience on Wednesday, Aug. 5, alongside Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck, said what their family underwent was heartbreaking and no patient should have to endure such conditions while waiting for a hospital bed.
Shyluk said his father, Jerry, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, arrived at St. Paul's Hospital by ambulance on July 27 and waited more than two hours before being admitted to an emergency room pod.
While the quieter space initially provided some comfort, he said his dad was later moved into a hallway after another patient required more advanced care. There, his father was surrounded by constant movement of staff, equipment, patients and visitors under bright lights with little opportunity for rest.
He said that took a visible toll on his father, as he looked lost because people living with Alzheimer's need familiar surroundings and routine rather than constant disruption.
"When you would come to visit him, he'd have this really bewildered and scared look on his face. You could tell he hadn't slept and he was exhausted. What happens in that situation is when you have the comfort of a loved one with you, you fall asleep,” said Shyluk.
"I saw my dad was a completely different man, almost as fragile as a child, and a scared person in a situation that nobody should be put into. Whether you're a senior, whether you are another young child or youth, everyone should remember the stories I've heard. It's everywhere."
He added that many of the people he encountered at the hospital had similar experiences. He noted that the issue extends beyond a single hospital or patient and reflects broader pressures facing Saskatchewan's healthcare system.
While critical of what he described as years of underfunding and staffing shortages, Shyluk praised frontline healthcare workers, who are doing their best under extremely difficult conditions, and said the system is failing both patients and staff.
He said that hallway care has become normalized in Saskatchewan despite not providing the privacy, dignity or environment patients need to recover. He hopes sharing his father's story will encourage more residents to speak publicly about their experiences and push governments to address the crisis.
"We need change. I think we're on the verge of collapse. What I would like to see come out of this is I would like to see voices heard and people pushing for change that we deserve," said Shyluk, who added that ED waits have steadily worsened over the years.
Shyluk said patients and families should not accept hallway medicine as normal, expressing hope that speaking out will lead to meaningful improvements. Hence, Saskatchewan residents receive timely, dignified healthcare in appropriate hospital settings.
Practical solutions
Beck said the provincial government has repeatedly been presented with practical solutions to address the province's healthcare challenges but has failed to act on them, adding that healthcare workers, medical professionals, communities and the Opposition have all put forward ideas to improve the system. Yet, the government has focused more on rebranding existing plans than implementing meaningful reforms.
"This is a government, frankly, that has been handed solution after solution. You have had healthcare workers, you have had the Opposition, you have had professionals, you have had communities come forward and say these are some of the solutions. Still, you have a government that has not been interested in actually doing the hard work of finding solutions,” said Beck.
“I've seen them put four different covers on their Patient First plan, and I have seen this province continue to drop when it comes to healthcare recruitment, when it comes to wait times and measure after measure, going from top of the pack to bottom of the pack."
Beck said Saskatchewan's healthcare problems stem from a lack of political will rather than a lack of viable solutions, accusing the government of prioritizing spin and self-preservation over fixing the system. She said families like that of Shyluk’s, whose father experienced prolonged hallway care in hospital, are demanding change after two decades of Saskatchewan Party government.
"This is not a problem of not having any solutions to this, even if they're not easy. This is a problem with a government that is more committed to spin and self-preservation than they are actually fixing the healthcare system in this province. They've had 20 years, and this is the result of their decisions that we see in our healthcare system right now,” she added.
Patients' needs first
The Saskatchewan Health Authority said in a statement that it remains committed to meeting patients’ needs first, ensuring their experience is as close to home as possible, including during periods of increased demand, and ensuring that healthcare staff are properly supported in these high-demand situations.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank our staff and physicians for the work they do every day to help deliver high-quality care. Saskatoon hospitals have been experiencing higher-than-average capacity levels at the start of summer, but those pressures have reduced as we move into August,” SHA added in the statement.
“The SHA would like to thank the patients and their families for their understanding as we continue to take immediate action to address these capacity pressures by expanding acute care capacity and improving flow through Saskatoon hospitals.”
The SHA said this includes having leaders connect daily with teams, including emergency department staff and physicians, enhancing EDs for patients accessing care, and ongoing work in addition to efforts underway to add acute care capacity in Saskatoon, including the expansion of 109 acute care inpatient beds at Saskatoon City Hospital.
“The additional 24 acute care and four ICU beds at St. Paul’s Hospital and 36 acute care beds at RUH that were announced as part of the Patients First Health Care Plan Action will also help address surges in capacity,” added the SHA’s statement.
