On November 3, 2011 the lives of several dozen Saskatoon Health Region employees changed when a hoist carrying loads of laundry fell from the ceiling at Central Laundry Services. Fortunately, no one was injured. But as a result, a safety review and engineering assessment led to laundry operations in the Region being curtailed.

Brenda Scott transitioned into her new role at St. Paul’s Hospital after the closure of Central Laundry.


A decision was made recently to close Central Laundry for the safety of staff. Health Region laundry for the three acute care sites in Saskatoon as well as Parkridge Centre, Oliver Lodge, Wakaw and Rosthern is currently being shipped to Prince Albert and Regina for laundering. The clean linens then return to Saskatoon where some staff continue to work at the distribution centre. The Region is no longer washing, drying, ironing, or machine folding the linen. Full-time staff currently not required at the distribution centre have been redeployed to special projects in housekeeping.

Edith Matyson is one who’s stayed behind. “It broke up our little family,” says Matyson, who has worked at the laundry for 33 years, currently as a supervisor. “You still feel like you’re in a family. I know some people didn’t get to stay on here and you have to feel for them.”
Brenda Scott, who has been with laundry for a year, is now working at St. Paul’s Hospital in housekeeping along with nine of her laundry colleagues. “We are a very close family. If one of the ten of us doesn’t come to work we wonder if they’re okay.”

Scott says the laundry staff has been welcomed with open arms at SPH. They and other staff redeployed to housekeeping duties at other facilities are working on special cleaning projects. The Health Region has worked with the union to ensure staff have a place to work.

Closing laundry was a difficult decision. “The safety of Saskatoon Health Region employees is more important to us than keeping this facility open,” says Bonnie Blakley, Vice President of People Strategies. “I have met many of our Central Laundry employees over the past several weeks and I know this is the right decision for them and their families. They have done tremendous work to keep our laundry operations going until this point, and we will work with each employee and their union to ease their concerns at this difficult time.”

Both Scott and Matyson say despite the situation, they’re loyal to the job. “We try to provide a service that the patients and the hospitals and facilities need,” says Matyson. “Our customers know we’re here everyday and trying to do our best.”

“We’re working very hard to keep providing laundry service to all our facilities, and to minimize any disruption to our patients, hospitals and care providers,” says Nilesh Kavia, Vice President of Finance and Administration. “Clean linen supplies are still low in the affected facilities. We appreciate the extra effort staff in those facilities are making to conserve linens and to ensure they use linens appropriately.”

“Everyone wanted to find a way to keep the place open,” says Scott. “We would do anything possible to keep our facility going. We understood that the hospitals needed their linen to work. Being shut down was devastating for us.

For 40 years, the plant in Saskatoon’s north end has handled the Region’s laundry services – cleaning as much as 27,000 pounds of soiled linen a day. The Region expects to be out of the Central Laundry building in January and will continue to provide distribution functions from an alternate site.