For more than 24 hours, Guy Pollock lay in a hospital bed in the hallway of Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital.
The 71-year-old estimates more than 2,000 people walked past him as he was treated for pneumonia.
Pollock lives with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, and is immunocompromised. In an interview on Thursday, he described his experience as traumatizing.
“I have been avoiding everybody for the last couple of years because of my lungs, and a cold would kill me,” he said.
“Being stuck in that hallway is just not a place I wanted to be, almost to the point of panic.”
Pollock, who describes himself as “an old farmer,” lives in Watrous, Sask., a town about 90 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon.
On Oct. 15, Pollock felt like he was unable to breathe and called 911.
He was initially taken to a hospital in Watrous, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. He was transported to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon and was admitted into an observation room shortly after arriving at the hospital that afternoon.
A few hours later, his bed was taken into a hallway near the emergency room.
“I said, ‘I don’t want to be here,’ and of course [the nurses] are still hoping that I’m going to get a room,” Pollock said.
That never happened and Pollock was left in the hallway for more than 24 hours until he was eventually transferred to a bed at Saskatoon City Hospital.
Pollock said he doesn’t blame the health-care workers. He believes they treated him as well as they could.
“Believe it or not, with how horrible the hallway I was in, one nurse told me there are worse hallways in this hospital and I can’t imagine what that would be,” he said.
Government responds
On Thursday, Pollock was visited by the NDP associate health critic Keith Jorgenson, who has been working to raise awareness about the ongoing state of overcrowding in Saskatoon hospitals.
The NDP also addressed Pollock’s ordeal during question period in the provincial legislature, putting Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill on the spot.
Cockrill admitted he had not yet been able to speak with Pollock but said he empathized with him.
“If that was my family member, if that was my relative, Mr. Speaker, I think we, all in this House and all across the province, Mr. Speaker, we want the best possible health care for the people of this province,” Cockrill said.
Cockrill highlighted the government’s decision to put more money toward hospitals in Saskatoon in order to improve patient flow and get patients into rooms as soon as possible.
In March, the Saskatchewan Health Authority announced 109 new acute care beds would be added to Saskatoon City Hospital.
Cockrill said 40 of the 109 beds are ready to go as of this week.
Tim Lang says after his mother suffered a stroke, she had to spend three days in an emergency room hallway at Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon waiting for a bed. The Saskatchewan Health Authority responded after a viral social media video showed patients crowded into hallways.
