REGINA - Hundreds of Saskatchewan Union of Nurses workers took to the streets of Regina Thursday, protesting what they call a downward spiral in healthcare.
SUN members gathered at the Saskatchewan Legislature to echo their message to the provincial government.
SUN president Tracy Zambory spoke to reporters after the protest and talked about the state of the healthcare sector.
“We are in trouble deep. You heard the voices of the registered nurses today and what they're doing in emergency rooms. And we have to remember our emergency rooms are the canary in the coal mine. They're telling us that every part of the system is in trouble because people are having to enter into the emergency rooms in Regina and Saskatoon, Prince Albert, all over the place because they can't get care anywhere else. They can't access it,” said Zambory.
Emergency rooms are currently 200 per cent over the limit, said Zambory. She added that the emergency room at Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital reached 350 per cent capacity on Tuesday.
Healthcare facilities are also facing shortages in supplies of oxygen, batteries and formula used for equipment to help patients in the hospital.
When asked about Scott Moe and the Saskatchewan Party's response to the crisis, Zambory told reporters she invited Moe to today’s event, but neither he nor his party showed up.
“Well, we had invited Premier Moe. In fact, I invited him personally because we were together at the Council of the Federations,” said Zambory. “He came to breakfast with me. I personally looked right in his face and invited him to take part in this important day to reassure registered nurses that he actually has a plan moving forward. But unfortunately, he wasn't able to attend. So he was going to have Minister Hindley come, and Minister Hindley didn't even have the courtesy to tell us he wasn't going to show up.”
The lack of communication from the previous government made Zambory feel disrespected. “How could nurses in this province feel anything but disrespected? When you haven't even got the courtesy actually to give a phone call to say, you know what, something's to come up. We wouldn't have been happy about it, but we could at least accept not being completely disrespected and ignored. But that's the pattern that we're in these days.”
Moe previously said the government hired over 1,000 nurses to help with the healthcare sector. However, a survey conducted by Praxis Analytics in Sept. 2024 found that 86 per cent of registered nurses reported patients are at risk due to short staffing at hospitals.
When asked about the additional nurses the previous government had added, Zambory said, “I don't trust that whatsoever. We are still almost 700 full-time equivalent short of registered nurses in this province. We heard it today. Nurses are doing one to 14. One nurse for 14 patients. So they can make all of the announcements they want. They're not translating to the front line. They've got to do better.”
Zambory believes nurses will vote for the party that puts a plan forward and will solve the healthcare crisis instead of making empty promises.
