Police posted full-time at Health Sciences Centre

WINNIPEG – Amid rising staff and patient safety concerns at the Health Sciences Centre, two police officers will be deployed to the emergency department, 24 hours a day.

The Manitoba government is providing more than $2 million to increase security efforts at the province’s largest hospital.

“There’s important work that’s happening to make sure that we’re involving law enforcement in the security solution at the (Health Sciences Centre),” said Justice Minister Matt Wiebe (pictured).

“We’re in discussions with (Winnipeg police) to make sure that they’ve got the right level of resources, and we’re confident we’ve got that.”

The province is providing $2.3 million for the fiscal year to go toward funding the officers and the addition of five new weapon-detection scanners at the main public entrances of the hospital.

Wiebe said the decision to do this comes after the province spoke with healthcare workers, their unions, the health department and officials at the Health Sciences Centre.

He said police officers will work with safety officers to provide a layered security response to individuals who are in crisis.

The move comes as nurses made the rare decision last month to declare the hospital too dangerous to work in, otherwise known as “grey listing.”

The Manitoba Nurses Union previously said it made several requests to the hospital to improve security measures but the safety of nurses there is consistently compromised.

Police arrested a man in July after a string of random sexual assaults in and around the hospital.

The union says it has asked for swipe cards to access hospital tunnels, the creation of a security team to man the tunnels and an alert system to notify staff of security issues.

Opposition Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan questioned whether two police officers is enough to address security issues.

“This is just a knee-jerk reaction by the NDP government to make an announcement to make it look like they’re doing something when really the results aren’t going to be there.”

Shared Health, the body that oversees services at Health Sciences Centre, said in a social media post that the province’s initiative is part of larger safety enhancements occurring at the hospital, including reducing public access points, security screening and strengthening safety features within the hospital’s tunnel system.

Source: The Canadian Press