The provincial government’s plan to reduce violence in B.C. hospitals can’t come soon enough for the University Hospital of Northern B.C. in Prince George.
Prince George hospital employees, and not just the ones working in the emergency ward, deal with physical and verbal assaults regularly. The constant presence of private, uniformed security, along with the occasional appearance of RCMP officers, has done little to stem the behaviour.
Health minister Adrian Dix announced Monday that 320 "protection service officers" and 14 "violence prevention leads" will be hired for 26 B.C. health care facilities to improve the safety of nurses, doctors and hospital workers, as well as patients.
That might just be the start. There could be more of these workers hired as needs require.
Dix said more than 4,400 reported incidents of violence have occurred at B.C. health care facilities since the summer of 2021, resulting in about $7 million in employee time-loss claims.
A January incident at the local hospital prompted a Worksafe BC investigation, which found, among other things, that Northern Health policy does not provide clear direction on when security and/or RCMP should be called. Just as it would any other employer, Worksafe BC will be fining health authorities if action is not being taken to adequately protect hospital workers and reduce workplace injuries.
Besides hospital workers and patients, Prince George RCMP will also benefit, by spending less time responding to service calls from hospital staff. A chain of emails provided to the Citizen revealed a growing tension between police officers and hospital workers. Unless they have brought someone under arrest to the hospital for medical treatment or there is a major incident happening, police officers shouldn’t be at the hospital. To be blunt, hospital security is beneath them, from both a job duty and a pay scale point of view.
The Prince George hospital and other regional hospitals have made good progress in recent years in making patient visits kinder and gentler for everyone, with more social workers, Indigenous health advocates and other support staff. Dedicated “protection service officers,” or whatever they’ll be called, is the final piece of that puzzle.
Hospitals have to be a safe place for workers, patients and visitors alike. Professionally-trained employees on site dedicated to keeping it that way and restoring it when it has been violated is an essential part of everyone’s health care.
Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
