Saskatoon man says father with Alzheimer’s spent nearly five days in hospital hallway

A Saskatoon man is raising concerns after he says his father spent almost five days in a hospital hallway. Stacey Hein has more.

A Saskatoon man says it was heartbreaking to see his 88-year-old father spend nearly five days receiving care in a hallway in the emergency department at St. Paul’s Hospital.

Mark Shyluk’s father Jerry, in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, was taken to hospital on July 27 after an injury.

“When I arrived to see him, it broke my heart, my dad was in the middle of chaos,” Shyluk said.

He added his father had no privacy, with bright lights on at all hours, constant movement around him and no call button to reach health-care workers.

“When you would come to visit him he had this bewildered and scared look on his face. After day one I could tell he hadn’t slept and he was exhausted. He felt like he was in storage and in the way.”

Shyluk said the busy, unfamiliar surroundings were especially difficult because of his father’s Alzheimer’s disease.

“When there’s constant change and chaos, I’m sure it was quite terrifying for him”.

Shyluk’s concerns echo those raised by other Saskatchewan patients and families over the past year. Last month a Saskatchewan woman spoke out after spending three days in a hallway at Royal University Hospital’s emergency department while seeking treatment for vomiting blood.

Last November a 74-year-old Saskatoon man raised concerns after spending six days in a hallway at RUH while being treated for a severe inner ear infection.

The month before, Tim Lang said his mother, who had a stroke, spent four days in a hallway before being moved to a room, while Lynn Harmon said her mother underwent an electrocardiogram in the hallway at RUH, raising concerns about privacy.

Shyluk was joined by NDP Leader Carla Beck at a news conference Wednesday, where she said hallway health care has been an ongoing issue and called on the provincial government to find a solution.

“You have had health care workers, you have had the opposition, you have had professionals, you have had communities come forward and say, these are some of the solutions,” Beck said.

“But you have a government that simply has not been interested in actually doing the hard work of finding solutions.”

In a statement, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) said “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.”

The SHA added it’s taking “immediate action to address capacity pressures by expanding acute care capacity and improving flow through Saskatoon hospitals.”