Overcrowded hospitals creating makeshift rooms, says Sask. NDP

The Opposition says hospitals in Regina and Saskatoon are continuing to struggle with overcrowding.

The NDP's health critic Danielle Chartier said thatas recently as this week, there were dozens more patients than beds in Saskatoon hospitals.

To cope, she says, a doctor at Royal University Hospital told her they are creatingmakeshift rooms to give patients some privacy.

"They are building forts in hallways with IV poles and sheets -- forts that my kid can make -- and calling them 'pods' and housing patients in the hallway," Chartier said. "It's still hallway medicine even if you build a fort around them."

The health minister sayshe is unaware of IV poles and bedsheets being used to create makeshift rooms, however Dustin Duncan saysthere have been concerns raised about hospital capacity in both Regina and Saskatoon recently.

"No question that our emergency departments are very busy places," Duncan said.

He says that's why the government continues to work toreduce demand in emergency rooms, by diverting non-urgent patients who could be treated in a more appropriate place.

• 'Hot spot' program helping curb ER overuse by regulars

Duncan says last year, nearly 45 per cent ofthe people who showed up at the ER -- were not urgent cases.