“At 5:30 a.m. we required an ambulance to assist with my severely disabled daughter.”
That’s from Michelle Linklater, a Saskatoon resident who said it would ultimately take three hours to finally get her daughter Jennica to Saskatoon City Hospital on Wednesday morning.
Jennica Linklater is wheelchair bound, and her mother Michelle said she needs assistance to get her daughter in and out of the house.
She said during that three-hour wait she called 911 multiple times.
“They said, ‘We don’t have any ambulances, they are all tied up at the emergency room.’”
She said first responders eventually showed up and were able to get her daughter into Linklater’s wheelchair-ready vehicle so they could go to the hospital.
“I think this is tragic. I knew emergency rooms were quite busy, but I didn’t know the magnitude of how that impact is going to have a rippling effect, and not for the good.”
She said she now needs to look at other options in case a situation like this happens again, saying she can’t rely on ambulances in the city.
Linklater said she hopes her story can bring more awareness to the issues around health care accessibility in Saskatchewan.
Hospitals across the province have been struggling with overcapacity issues and lack of staffing, with Saskatoon City Hospital having to close its emergency room doors at the beginning of the new year.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority has tried to address these issues with the Saskatoon Capacity Pressure Action Plan announced back in November 2023, with a range of actions listed to be taken to help alleviate hospital pressure over a staggered timeline.
Global News reached out to the Saskatchewan Health Authority for comment.