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The provincial NDP campaigned in Saskatoon on Friday, with party leader Cam Broten outlining a plan to get more use out of City Hospital.
The facility currently operates 169 beds, but was built for 343.
Broten said, if elected, his party would add 40 acute care beds. Twenty of those would come onstream in the fall of 2016, with another 20 added in 2017.
A release from the party claims the move would cost $16.6 million over four years.
Broten also promised to lengthen City Hospital’s emergency room hours. The hospital’s ER currently operates from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Broten said an NDP government would extend the hours to 9 a.m to midnight.
The NDP projected that extending City Hospital’s emergency room hours would cost $3.3 million.
Brian Geller, an emergency room physician at City Hospital, also attended the NDP event.
He said he found it frustrating to send patients to other hospitals while so much of his own facility sits unused.
“What we do know is that after a decision to be admitted is made, the longer a patient waits for that definitive care, the worse their health outcomes are,” he said.
Geller said adding beds at City Hospital could also provide some relief for Royal University Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital — both facilities that issued warnings about being overcapacity this week.
