Saskatchewan patients in the most critical need of health care will be getting an expanded and upgraded intensive care unit at Royal University Hospital. 

The project was spurred by a more-than-$17 million capital investment from the Province which will bring the number of ICU beds at RUH from 19 to 26. The RUH Foundation is also chipping in $3 million.

CEO of the Saskatchewan Health Authority Andrew Will says the two-phase, two-year project will establish 26 individual patient rooms for privacy and safety. They will be set up in two, adjacent 13-room sub-units on the third floor of the hospital.  The area currently housing ICU patients allocates four people to a room.  

“This new unit create not only a great, safe, high-quality environment for our patients, but it will also in a very high-quality area for our staff to provide care.”

Several of the rooms will also be equipped with negative pressure, or Airborne Infection Isolation technology.

Health Minister Jeremy Cockrell says this project will require the hiring of additional health care staff in order to be successful, and it’s not the only one. 

“Prince Albert Victoria Hospital will need about 500 additional staff once that project is done. La Ronge long-term care, a significant lift in that community, going from 16 long-term care beds to 80 long-term care beds in Northern Saskatchewan.”

However, he assures that the Province’s efforts to create additional training seats, recruit staff from outside the province, and retain workers long-term should account for that.  

Current ICU patients have been relocated across the hall until their new rooms are ready, which will likely be sometime in 2028. 

One room in the former ICU unit