A review on congested emergency rooms in Regina and Saskatoon which was asked for by the Saskatchewan NDP last fall was released on Thursday.

The review shows that one of the big reasons for the E-R’s being as crowded as they are is not only are people in both cities coming to hospital first, but so are people from out of town.

Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone says numbers show many are driving to the city to get emergency care and that they are driving past places where there are available beds.

Livingstone went as far as to place the blame on the 12 health regions Saskatchewan used to utilize before amalgamating all 12 into one

A review by American company GE Health Care reached five conclusions about the Saskatchewan health care system:

•  Patients are often referred to tertiary centres when appropriate rural or community alternatives are available.
•  Patients are often kept longer in tertiary facilities than is necessary because of various challenges in getting them home.
•  Most primary health care networks or service providers have limited visibility on their patients in tertiary care or patients in the community with heightened risk levels, limiting the ability for these services to reduce reliance on acute care and complicating the discharge process from tertiary facilities.
•  Patients, particularly those with complex needs, often get stuck in tertiary centres because of the need for expanded and appropriate supports, lack of effective coordination between acute care and long term care and high demand for long term care spots in major cities.
•  Operational performance around factors like bed management, bed assignment, nurse handoffs, patient transport and other processes should be reviewed to ensure continuous improvement at all levels.

Livingstone says the health authority has already started to work on the issues identified in the report