Dexter Mercer listens to Bashir Jalloh CUPE 5430 president speak during a press conference Mar. 31. (CUPE Saskatchewan Photo)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

Tech scrum

Healthcare workers speak out about burnout concerns

Mar 31, 2025 | 6:32 PM

Dexter Mercer, a medical radiation technologist (MRT) at the Battlefords Union Hospital, had worked a 50-hour stretch of multiple shifts when the accident happened.

“On yet another return to the hospital parking lot in the middle of the night, I lost consciousness at the wheel before putting the vehicle in park, rolled the vehicle into a lamp post,” he said during a press conference held by the NDP on Monday at the Saskatchewan Legislature, alongside representatives from CUPE 5430 and other medical technologists and technicians.

Mercer said at the BUH, the shifts run from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and they are then expected to be on call from 4:30 p.m. to the start of the next shift the following morning.

“It is very common to be called back several times in the evening and night, grossly interrupting time generally used for decompression from stress and sleep to prepare for the day ahead,” he said, noting this can happen five times in a row.

According to Shadow Minister for Health Vicki Mowat, funding cuts and short staffing are making their jobs difficult.

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“For years, the SaskParty hasn’t listened to their concerns, so they’ve driven into the legislature from communities across the province to say it to their faces,” she said.

“Too many Saskatchewan healthcare workers have been in Dexter’s position.”

Battlefords MLA and Minister for Health Jeremy Cockrill told battlefordsNOW it was an insightful opportunity to hear from frontline workers.

“You always learn something right, whenever you talk to folks who work in the hospital or another healthcare setting,” he said.

“Some good discussion today on some of the challenges they’re seeing in the system and then perhaps some solutions as well.”

During the announcement, Mowat and Bashir Jalloh, the union president spoke to the provincial budget of $8.004 billion this year.

A recent survey called ‘Still Waiting: Report on the Workload of CUPE Medical Technologists and Technicians in Saskatchewan’ said 91 per cent of respondents said not only has the workload led to decreased morale and the workload, 91 per cent also believe it has affected the “health and safety of patients/residents.”

Mercer said he joined the news conference in Regina to advocate for his profession, which began in 2018.

“Signs of fatigue and stress were already evident then,” he said.

“During my time at BUH, there’s been no signs of stabilization, with staff members choosing not to return to that environment after maternity leaves, extended sick leaves and many finding other employment elsewhere.”

Jalloh said the healthcare system is stretched beyond its limits.

“Frontline healthcare workers are the ones paying the price,” he said, adding it wasn’t just about the workers.

“We know that work always equates to the condition of care. When medical technologists and technicians are overworked, wait times (increase), vital tests are delayed, critical scans are not done on time.”

In other cases, Jalloh said he spoke with healthcare students who are waiting to graduate from school and then go elsewhere.

“We cannot maintain our healthcare system when we are training people…and they are leaving our province.”

Cockrill disagreed.

“I just came out of a meeting with the president and you know there’s different graduates of all sorts of programs,” he said.

“Maybe they go to BC or Manitoba or Alberta for family reasons or…are from another country and decide to get trained here and then move to the United States or another Commonwealth country.”

The health minister explained to help keep them in the province is through incentives such as offering a $40,000 for three years of service as an MRT as part Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive.

“Not everybody who studies at a post-secondary in Saskatchewan works in Saskatchewan, but certainly with increased seats, we’re seeing more people stay.”

According to Mercer, whose position includes operating computed tomography (CT) that is used to evaluate and diagnose disease, injury and planning medical, surgical and radiation treatments, he has at times been the only permanent fulltime employee working in this department.

“Currently there is almost no language in the collective agreement protecting us from the amount of time we can be expected to be on call,” he said.

Upon hearing Mercer’s story, Cockrill told reporters during a scrum, this was what they were trying to address by filling vacancies.

“If there’s more people working within the department, then people don’t need to be on call that much, we don’t need to have that much overtime,” he said.

Mowat said that within the CUPE report, three-quarters of technologists and technicians are burning out and half have seen service closures due to short staffing.

“72 per cent are doing unpaid work just to keep their hospitals open and much more,” she said,

That is what led Mercer to make his decision.

“The only recognition I’ve received for pushing myself to the limit has come from the patients who see my exhaustion firsthand,” said Mercer.

“This is why I’ve decided to step away from my full-time position.”

For his part, Cockrill acknowledged they have work to do.

“There’s lots of opportunities to point out each other’s faults and point out shortcomings here and there,” he said.

“At the end of the day, what we need to remained focus on is opportunities to work together.”

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: juleslovett.bsky.social