REGINA, Sask.- The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Regina General Hospital is getting a boost in its capacity to care for newborn infants who have just entered the world.
At an announcement Monday morning at the hospital, the Ministry of Health confirmed the NICU unit has increased its bassinets from 25 up to 28.
The additional bassinets are expected to be operational in early September. Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said the expansion will “help ensure more of Saskatchewan's most vulnerable newborns can receive the specialized care that they need close to home.”
Cockrill said the government is providing more than $2 million in increased annual funding to support staffing required for the three new bassinets. As part of the announcement, Cockrill said this includes adding more than 17 full-time equivalent positions to “ensure safe and high quality specialized care for patients and their families.”
The NICU also received a funding boost from the Hospitals of Regina Foundation. Its CEO Dino Sophocleous announced they were committing an an additional $800,000, which he said will “support the technology and equipment required for our NICU's expansion, to make sure our pediatric teams have the tools they need to care for babies born too early or too small, right here in southern Saskatchewan.”
This is in addition to the $1.5 million the Hospitals of Regina Foundation already committed in 2026 for Regina's maternal health and pediatric program.
The bassinets and the associated equipment itself come at a significant price tag. Sophocleous said each one costs $80,000 and the foundation is picking up the tab for those costs out of their $800,000 grant.
Sophocleous noted the NICU unit, which is one of three in the province, had been running at or over capacity for the past few years, and believes the expansion will ease those pressures.
“When the NICUs in Saskatoon and Prince Albert are full, fragile babies from northern Saskatchewan or Saskatoon are transferred to Regina for care. And when our NICU in Regina is full, babies from southern Saskatchewan are sent for care, usually to Saskatoon."
He said the additional beds "will ease the pressure and keep more of these very fragile babies right here, close to home.”
Kim Woycik, Executive Director of Maternal and Children's Programs with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, said the expansion to the NICU will have a significant impact.
"These beds provide greater flexibility within the system, help us manage our periods of high demand, and ensure more families can access specialized care closer to home," Woycik said. She also pointed to the benefits for families.
"Keeping babies close to home not only supports better connections between infants and their families, it also allows parents, siblings, and loved ones to remain actively involved in a baby's care journey during that critical time. These benefits extend far beyond the walls of our NICU and have a lasting impact on families, communities, and patient experiences."
A question from reporters was whether the NICU unit would be fully staffed in time for the arrival of the new bassinets.
Derek Miller, COO of Saskatchewan Health Authority, said of the additional 17 FTE positions in the NICU, “we have filled the positions, and we’re just in the process now of orientation and on-boarding in order to be able to start scheduling them in to open the beds in early September.”
Minister Cockrill said he was “fully confident” the three new beds will be up and running in September.
