Winnipeg police raced to St. Boniface Hospital after a patient armed with knives was “acting erratically” over the weekend.
The incident involving the man, who was staying in an in-patient unit, took place Saturday.
The situation was de-escalated and no one was hurt, says a memo sent to hospital staff Monday.
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St. Boniface Hospital at 409 Tache Avenue.
“We would like to assure staff that we are taking this incident very seriously, as the safety of everyone who works here at SBH will always be one of our top priorities,” the memo reads, noting the hospital will hold debrief sessions with staff about the incident.
The Winnipeg Police Service confirmed it was called but did not say if charges had been laid.
Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said the patient took the knives with him to the ward and there are no staff on site who are able to search patients.
She said nurses who witnessed the incident were “traumatized.”
“It’s worrying because we know in our emergency departments that individuals are bringing weapons in all the time… it’s a reality that people are bringing weapons in, and not just patients, but families, visitors,” she said.
“Unfortunately, there’s absolutely no way for the staff to know whether someone has a weapon or not, so when a patient becomes agitated and it escalates, you have no idea what you’re dealing with for the situation.”
Some efforts have been made to mitigate the smuggling of weapons into Winnipeg hospitals. “Amnesty lockers,” which allow people to voluntarily lock up their dangerous or illicit materials, were put into the Health Sciences Centre emergency department in 2022.
In July, an AI weapon-detection system was installed at the Health Sciences Centre emergency department and crisis response centre.
Jackson said the union has yet to be informed about the results of that pilot project, which was scheduled to last several weeks.
“If someone is escalating, it’s not just the staff that are at risk, everyone in that area is at risk if they have a weapon. This is the employer’s responsibility to provide a safe workplace,” she said.
“We’re pushing all the time and asking them, ‘What are you doing to provide a safe workplace?… How are you going to prevent this from happening again?’”
St. Boniface Hospital is under the jurisdiction of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, which noted the hospital has hired and trained 16 safety officers, expected to begin working soon.
“We are always looking at ways to improve safety for staff, patients and visitors,” a WRHA spokesperson said in an email.
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas
Reporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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