40 new beds open at Saskatoon City Hospital as province faces ongoing staffing pressures

Forty new acute care beds are now open at Saskatoon City Hospital, part of a major expansion project the province says will relieve pressure across Saskatoon’s hospitals.

At a Friday news conference, Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said it's a significant step toward increasing hospital capacity and improving patient flow in Saskatchewan’s largest city.

"We know that capacity pressures have a real impact on patients, on staff and health-care providers, and those challenges are taken very seriously by the government of Saskatchewan," he said.

The newly opened 40-bed unit is the first phase of a larger project that will add 109 new acute care beds at City Hospital by the end of 2026. When complete, the expansion is expected to increase Saskatoon’s hospital capacity by about 14 per cent.

The new beds are part of a $60-million spend over two provincial budgets to expand inpatient capacity and support the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s “capacity pressure” action plans in Saskatoon and Regina.

SHA CEO Andrew Will said the new capacity is crucial to improving patient flow, especially in crowded emergency departments.

“When no bed is available, patients stay in the emergency department until one opens,” Will said. “By expanding both acute and continuing care capacity, we’re addressing those pressures at their root cause.”

Will said the capacity pressure action plan for Saskatoon, launched in late 2023, has already led to a 22 per cent reduction in patients waiting in hospital for a continuing-care space and a 17 per cent decrease in admitted patients waiting in emergency rooms for inpatient beds.

To make room for the new units, some outpatient and continuing-care programs are being moved from City Hospital to community settings, including Market Mall.

When the full expansion is complete, the SHA expects to add more than 500 staff, according to the province. Cockrill said about 150 of those positions have already been filled.

Friday’s announcement came less than a week after City Hospital’s emergency department closed several hours early. Cockrill described it as a “one-time freak disruption.”

“Due to physician availability, [it was] kind of an unplanned absence, a last-minute cancellation,” he said.

Cockrill said the province has introduced incentives for ER doctors and is recruiting physicians both domestically and internationally. He said the new urgent care centre under construction on Saskatoon’s west side is part of a broader plan to relieve emergency department pressures.

The Opposition NDP says the government’s celebration of new beds is tone-deaf, given the state of hospital staffing and recent closures.