Work begins on expansion of ICU at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital

Work to expand the adult intensive-care unit at Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon will get underway this week.

The project, which comes with a $17 million price tag, will expand the number of beds in the unit from 19 to 26. The work also includes renovations and modernization upgrades to the unit, in order to allow for 26 single-patient rooms.

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“Expanding critical care capacity is important to ensuring patients receive timely, life saving care when they need it most,” Andrew Will, the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s CEO, said in a statement.

“By modernizing the existing ICU and adding seven new beds, we are better equipped to respond to the most complex and urgent patient needs, while also supporting and enhancing the high-quality care delivered by critical care teams to patients during some of their most difficult moments.”

Will said challenges with capacity became very apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The original ICU in the RUH Hospital, it was a 12-bed unit, and it was very landlocked, without really any opportunity to expand the unit and make it larger. During COVID, we had immense pressure and need for ICU capacity, so we did move into this vacated space that was previously pediatric care spaces, which allowed us to expand from 12 to 15 beds and, ultimately, 19, and now we’re expanding to 26 beds,” Will said.

“This really does help us ensure we’ve got capacity to care for patients from across the province when needed.”

Will said these upgrades will help more than just the hospital’s patients.

“This new unit will create not only a really great environment, a safe, high-quality environment for our patients, but it’ll also result in a very high-quality area for our staff to provide care, with room to really be able to use their skills to care for critically ill patients,” he said.

“The technology will improve, the spaces will improve and the mechanical will improve. It’ll be a really different environment for our patients and our staff. We’re so excited about it.”

The project will be completed in two phases over the next two years, the health authority noted. Sean Wilson, Saskatchewan’s minister responsible for SaskBuilds and procurement, said the work has been planned out to minimize disruptions at the busy intensive-care unit.

“Through careful planning and the two-phased construction approach to allow continuity of operations, this project will enhance critical care capacity while maintaining uninterrupted services, ensuring patients and care teams benefit from modern, purpose-built facilities,” Wilson said in a statement.

Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said the expansion will also require an increase in staff.

“Anytime that we add additional capacity in the system, there’s going to be more staff required,” he said.

“Just down the hall are the 36 new acute care beds that we added to this facility not too long ago. And so when I think about the capital projects that we have in Prince Albert right now, Grenfell long-term care, and La Ronge long-term care, there are a lot of projects coming on board, including this one, where more staff will be required.”

He said the province is also investing in health-care training in an effort to ensure those positions are filled. But when it comes to holding on to those workers and keeping them in the prairies, Cockrill said there is still a lot of work to be done.

“We’ve added those training seats. We’ve made sure that there are incentives in place,” the minister said.

“I’m confident that we’re going to get to an agreement with our union partners in this province that will, I think, properly, really represent the government’s view on how important those folks are in our health-care system. All those things, again, have to work together to make sure that we can get to a great spot in terms of staffing.”

In addition to the funding from the provincial government, the project has also been supported by donors to the Royal University Hospital Foundation. Jennifer Molloy, the foundation’s CEO, said donors understand that families across the province rely on the intensive-care unit during the most critical emergencies.

“We are grateful to be a partner in creating a space that matches the extraordinary skills of our medical teams,” Molloy said in a statement. “When you need complex care, you are in the right place at RUH.”

–with files from 650 CKOM’s Brittany Caffet