Sask. NDP pledges ER waits of minutes, not hours

The Saskatchewan NDP is gearing up for the election with a campaign promise to cut emergency room wait times.
 
“New Democrats will deliver shorter ER waits, waits that can be measured in minutes, not hours,” said NDP leader Cam Broten, standing across the street from the Regina General Hospital on Thursday. “Those needing emergency and urgent care will be seen within 15 and 30 minute benchmarks. Those needing less urgent care will be seen within an hour.”
 
If elected, the NDP plan is to hire 35 nurse practitioners to work in ERs to treat patients presenting with less urgent health issues under a fast track system.
 
“By having a fast track option within emergency rooms, having nurse practitioners working alongside physicians and the entire team, it provides that release of a lot of the pressure that emergency rooms are facing,” Broten explained.
 
According to information provided by the NDP, the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS) ranking system shows that 28.3 per cent of patients going to ERs in 2014-15 in Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert, were classified as less urgent, and 17.7 per cent were for non-urgent needs.
 
The CTAS classifies less urgent needs as minor trauma, abdominal pain and respiratory infections. Non-urgent needs include sore throats, vomiting and diarrhea, and mild abdominal pain.
 
Broten also pledged to open four quick care clinics with extended hours near ERs to treat people with minor health problems and assess mental health issues. He says Manitoba has had success with quick care clinics.
 
He said these ideas come from examples of work in other provinces as well as talking with front-line health care workers.
 
“First and foremost, it comes from the listening that our team has done as we’ve met with health care workers and heard their frustration and heard the real good insight provided from the front lines,” Broten said.
 
The third part of the platform for reducing ER wait times is to expand a current pilot project for community paramedics in the Saskatoon Health Region.
 
Specially-trained paramedics provide on-site intervention and monitoring for things like pain management, cardiac monitoring, diagnostic collections for things like diabetes and certain intravenous or respiratory treatments.
 
The current pilot project already offers these services in some long-term care homes in Saskatoon. Broten is proposing to expand the program to include home visits to patients who are living with home care. He used diabetes as an example of a health issue that could be monitored and stabilized from home.
 
“This would be a good example where a community paramedic could go into that residence, provide some of that stability, do that work, and save that trip to the emergency room,” he said.
 
When asked what these ER initiatives have to offer residence in rural areas, Broten said that the current plan is to introduce them first in the four major cities, then look at possibly expanding them to other communities in the future.
 
The SaskParty responded to the NDP campaign promises by highlighting the commitment of $4.7 million this year to spend on initiatives to reduce ER wait times. While in power the SaskParty government also promised a 60 per cent reduction in ER wait times by the year 2019. In an email, a government spokesperson also pointed out that several of the promises are similar to current government initiatives such as the hot spotting program.