Icy conditions overwhelm Regina hospitals

January 11, 2018, 8:35 am

Icy conditions in Regina and area led to Regina emergency rooms being overwhelmed with patients, and emergency othopedic surgeries cancelling other surgeries.

The EMS service was so busy that Moosomin's Hutch Ambulance took some calls in Regina as an ambulance from Moosomin was waiting to transport a patient to Moosomin.

"We had transported a patient to Regina, and there was some wait time, so we took a couple of calls in the city," Walter Hutchinson of Hutch Ambulance said.

Pasqua Hospital and Regina General Hospital emergency departments are each designed with 33 stretchers. Tuesday night, patient numbers peaked at 68 at Pasqua’s Emergency and 81 at Regina General Hospital’s Emergency, mainly due to injuries caused by the weather conditions.

As of 10 AM Wednesday there were 11 orthopedic patients in the Pasqua’s emergency department and four in Regina General’s.

"As many as seven elective surgeries have also been postponed today to accommodate a surge of emergent, mostly orthopedic, surgeries. We apologize to those elective surgery patients who were affected by this and will work to reschedule these elective surgeries as soon as possible," the Saskatchewan Health Region said in a statement.

Regina’s EMS responded to more than 30 fall-related calls for service in a 12 hour period Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday morning. EMS services from four different communities, which had transported patients to Regina earlier Tuesday, assisted Regina EMS in making patient transfers.

"Regina EMS thanks those EMS crews, from Indian Head, Moosomin, Milestone and Melville for their assistance," the Saskatchewan Health Region said in a statement.