Saskatoon nurse joins NDP call for hospital safety plan
CBC
An emergency room nurse at St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon says staff there cry every day over unsafe working conditions.
Melissa McGillivray joined NDP MLAs Nathaniel Teed and Keith Jorgenson at a news conference Monday to urge the provincial government to introduce an emergency plan to protect workers at the hospital.
The call comes after a man entered the hospital on Nov. 27 with a sawed-off shotgun, ammunition and several knives.
The NDP also called on the government to install a metal detector at St. Paul’s, which is located in Saskatoon’s Pleasant Hill neighbourhood.
“I am here today to say enough is enough,” McGillivray, who ran as a candidate for the federal NDP in Saskatoon-University in March, told reporters. “I am here because my heart hurts every time I check in on a peer, a patient, a visitor or a volunteer who’s been impacted by violence.”
Teed suggested the province passed over the hospital for a metal detector because it lacked sufficient security staff to operate one.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority declined to answer a question about the metal detector. A statement said the SHA is offering training to determine if someone poses a risk of violence and on how to prevent violence.
A pilot project will also test artificial intelligence technology to detect weapons at Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon.
The SHA website has job postings for six security officer positions at St. Paul’s Hospital. Five of them appear to have been posted Monday.
Three of the positions are full time and three are part time. The salary range listed is $22.60 to $24.21 an hour.
McGillivray said only two of the five positions in her department are filled. She attributed the vacancies to concerns about safety and the workload.
The SHA website also includes 25 listings for registered nurses for St. Paul’s, including one posted in August.
McGillivray said one of her coworkers is going on leave due to trauma after the shotgun incident.
“Increasingly, we’re finding ourselves exposed to weapons including, but not limited to, knives, needles with bodily fluid or drugs, machetes, brass knuckles, pepper spray and even, now, guns,” McGillivray said.
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