Verda Petry's brother Lyle Johnson spent four months in hospital waiting for a nursing home bed to open up.Verda Petry's brother Lyle Johnson spent four months in hospital waiting for a nursing home bed to open up. (CBC)

A Regina family knows first-hand the stress people face in a health system that has hospitals across the province running at over capacity.

Verda Petry's brother, Lyle Johnson, spent four months in hospital waiting for a nursing home bed to open up.

"He should have gone to a nursing home, but there was no placement. No space," Petry told CBC News.

Hospitals in Regina and Saskatoon have been full to over-capacity for weeks, in part because some patients are ready to move into other care settings, but there is no place for them to go.

The situation across the province:

Saskatoon Health Region:

  • All three hospitals still very busy, but improved from most crowded time in early January. Health region spokeswoman Linda Walker said officials are monitoring the situation very closely.
  • Royal University Hospital has 13 beds in use, beyond normal capacity and 11 patients waiting in the ER for beds.
  • St. Paul's Hospital has 35 additional beds in operation and 7 patients waiting in the ER for beds.
  • Region has 60 patients in acute care beds waiting for placement in Long Term Care or Home Care.

Cypress Health Region:

  • No issues with capacity at regional or community hospitals, but more admissions than normal.

Prince Albert Parkland Health Region:

  • Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert has been operating at or above capacity for the last 12 to 18 months.
  • Not as severe as Saskatoon and Regina.
  • Wait list for long-term care bed has had as many as 50 people on it.
  • Officials say "finding an appropriate setting for patients is the biggest challenge" at this time.
  • Health region also faced a respiratory illness in five facilities.

Heartland Health Region:

  • Not experiencing pronounced overcrowding.

Kelsey Trail Health Region:

  • No over capacity issues at acute care facilities, but long-term care facilities are at full capacity.

Prairie North Health Region:

  • Some concerns of overcrowding for acute care beds in three regional hospitals, in North Battleford, Lloydminster and Meadow Lake.

Mamawetan Churchill River Health Region:

  • Health region reports no problem with overcrowding in the region, running at about 45 to 50 percent capacity in their acute care facility in La Ronge.
  • There is a wait list in the region for long-term care beds and people in acute care waiting for beds elsewhere.

Sun Country Health Region:

  • Not reporting any pronounced capacity issues in hospitals and no bed shortages.
  • Hospitals in Weyburn and Estevan running at approximately 60 to 65 percent of their capacity.
  • Some patients in acute care are waiting for placement in long term care beds.

Five Hills Health Region:

  • Union Hospital in Moose Jaw running at an average capacity of 74 percent.

Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region:

  • Facing unprecedented overcrowding issues that have been more pronounced in recent months and weeks.
  • Pasqua Hospital is reporting the highest occupancy peak at 126 percent on Jan. 9.
  • General Hospital reached its peak on the same day, at 119 percent.

Information not immediately available from:

Keewatin Yatthé Health Region:

  • (Awaiting details.)

Sunrise Health Region:

  • (Awaiting details.)

The Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region admitted this week that patients in two hospitals in Regina have been treated in corridors, due to a lack of bed space.

Sadly, Johnson, 74, died in August one week after finally moving to Pioneer Village.

He was admitted to the Pasqua Hospital in Regina in April, suffering from a respiratory problem and spent a difficult four months in hospital.

"He was dizzy all the time. He just clutched the railings of the bed," Petry said.

She added she does not blame the hospital or nursing home for the difficulty they face.

However, she just recognizes her brother was in a hospital bed that could have been used for someone in need of acute care.

Long-term patients waiting for space in a care home are just one part of a complex web of health care services.

"Some patients are being managed in hospitals and on stretchers and that is definitely not the care we want to provide," Dr. Philip Fourie, head of the Saskatchewan Medical Association, told CBC News when asked about crowded hospitals.

Fourie said Yorkton's emergency room is one place of many with problems due to an aging and growing population.

Fourie said solutions for streamlining care, from hospitals to other settings, need to be devised.

CBC News contacted health regions across the province and found that Saskatoon and Regina are seeing the most critical overcrowding.

Other regions said they are busy, but the situation was not as bad as what the major centres are facing.

With files from CBC's Dani Mario