Mark Shyluk speaks to media on Aug. 5, 2026 about his elderly father, Jerry, and his difficult visit to St. Paul's Hospital earlier this year. (Mia Holowaychuk/650 CKOM)

Elderly patient with early Alzheimer’s kept for days in hospital hallway

By Marija Robinson Aug 5, 2026 | 3:56 PM

Mark Shyluk’s 88-year-old dad had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance on July 27 for an injury.

Jerry Shyluk, who suffers from early Alzheimer’s, was brought to the emergency room at St. Paul’s Hospital on a stretcher. He waited for more than two hours to get help.

That wait didn’t compare, though, to the one for a ward bed.

Read more:

After being seen, Jerry was eventually placed onto a hospital bed in an ER hallway. It’s where he spent the roughly next five days.

“When I arrived to see him, it broke my heart. My dad was in the middle of chaos,” Mark said.

According to Mark, there was constant movement of people, stretchers, medical equipment and visitors around him. There wasn’t a call button his dad could press for help, the space didn’t offer any privacy and the hallway’s bright fluorescent lights were on at all hours.

Mark said he could see the strain the chaotic environment had on his dad.

“When you would come to visit him, he would have this really bewildered and scared look on his face,” Mark said. “He stated he felt like he was in storage and in the way.”

Saskatchewan NDP leader, Carla Beck, speaks about the poor state of health care in Saskatchewan in front of St. Paul’s Hospital on Aug. 5, 2026. (Mia Holowaychuk/650 CKOM)

With all the chaos, he said his dad wasn’t sleeping.

Mark explained how, with Jerry’s early Alzheimer’s, it’s important for his dad to be in a familiar space. Just being in a hospital was already difficult for the senior.

“But, when there’s constant change and chaos, I’m sure it was quite terrifying for him,” Mark said.

Pattern of hallway healthcare

This isn’t the first time concerns over hallway healthcare have been raised in Saskatoon.

Back in July, Anne Fournier recounted spending a week in Royal University Hospital (RUH)’s hallway, where she was seeking treatment for vomiting blood.

In October 2025, full-time nurse Drayson McGilvery said roughly 28 to 32 beds were added to RUH’s ER hallways. Patients were more likely to get a bed in the hallway than in the ER.

Just a month before McGilvery’s account, in September 2025, Tim Lang shared how his 82-year-old mother was kept for three days in a hallway at RUH.

Standing alongside Mark as he shared his dad’s experience, NDP leader Carla Beck said this level of healthcare shouldn’t be accepted as normal.

“The fact that it’s commonplace does not make it right,” she said.

In an emailed statement, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) wrote, “Saskatoon hospitals have been experiencing higher than average capacity levels at the start of summer,” but offered assurance that those pressures have eased up this month.

The health authority highlighted the 109 acute care patient beds being added to Saskatoon City Hospital, alongside 36 acute care beds at RUH and 24 acute care and four ICU beds at St. Paul’s Hospital.

When asked whether hallway healthcare is a reality Saskatchewan residents need to accept, the SHA did not provide a direct response.

–with files from 650 CKOM’s Mia Holowaychuk