Weapons, physical violence still impacting Saskatchewan hospitals

Despite the addition of metal detectors into several Saskatchewan hospital emergency rooms two months ago, a nurse at Royal University Hospital said her emergency department situation hasn’t changed much.

Sara Peters, a clinical coordinator at hospital in Saskatoon, has been a nurse for the past 19 years. It was the Royal University Hospital emergency department that was part of the pilot project to test the metal detectors that would be eventually used in other hospitals.

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Peters said it took some time to get the pilot project detectors up and running, but they’ve been used since fall 2025, manned by constant security.

“We’ve seen a difference because (patients) are having to be screened. Things are being filtered through,” she explained. Peters said she has seen knives, screwdrivers and even a firearm removed from an individual in the hospital.

“We have seen the visuals of it de-escalating violence,” she said. However, that does not mean weapons are not entering her emergency department anymore.

“It just seems to be the same old, same old,” Peters said. “I’ve had a number of my triage nurses say they’ve taken knives off of a patient who has already gone through the detectors.”

Sara Peters, an ICU nurse at Royal University Hospital’s emergency department in Saskatoon for the past 19 years, said weapons are still being found on patients coming into the ER, despite the newly implemented metal detector at the department entrance. Peters is pictured in her home on March 24, 2026. (Libby Gray/650 CKOM)

Peters said the emergency department has still had to call police to remove violent patients, as well, since the detectors have been installed. She called the situation in which that recently happened a “very heightened and escalated scenario.”

Last fall, Peters authored the letter signed by 450 health care workers at Royal University Hospital, in which she called out the province for persistent issues impacting nurses and health care employees at that hospital, including emergency department overcrowding and employee retention.

Peters said she and other nurses were frustrated with constant overcapacities, violence and danger to patients, significant workloads and high acuity cases.

“These things just weren’t sustainable anymore and I’d had previous meetings with the government to try and initiate some change in that front however, we felt that we didn’t get the response that was necessary,” Peters said.

The Royal University Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital emergency departments experience much of the same difficulties, Peters explained.

“We do see weapons, physical violence, verbal violence, abuse of those same varieties,” she explained, referring to the numerous incidents that were outlined in another letter by health care workers that came from St. Paul’s Hospital, weeks after her own.

“I’ve seen patients stab themselves,” she detailed.

“I’ve seen us have to bring the police in to help extricate violent people. We’ve had numerous scary takedowns where patients need to be restrained because they’re a danger to themselves or a danger to others in the department.”

Peters said these incidents are not episodic, but have become an everyday exposure risk to patients and staff in hospitals in the province.

Despite the limited impact it seems metal detectors have made, by Peters’ estimation, she said that tool is just the “tip of the iceberg.”

She noted that metal detectors haven’t stopped physical violence situations where weapons aren’t present, verbal abuse or emergency department outbursts.

“The nature of the emergency room right now, with it being so overcrowded and having significant overcapacity and multiple hallway patients and the patients being sicker themselves, I think it’s just a simmering pot for frustration and anger.

“I think the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) has committed to a culture of safety with the implementation of metal detectors,” she said, also noting the anticipated rollout of a violence assessment program that will be used across facilities in the province to help identify a patient’s risk of violence.

The SHA clarified that the program — the Individual Client Risk Assessment — is part of the comprehensive Violence Prevention and Mitigation Plan put in place by the health authority. In a statement, the health authority said the program empowers staff to participate in safety reporting and improving safety culture.

The program is expected to be rolled out at all health authority facilities by July 2028.

“I think that really shows that they’re (the SHA) committed to a comprehensive approach to safety. There’s just some gaps in that implementation,” she said.

Dozens of weapons including machetes, knives, screwdrivers and a gun are just some of the items confiscated at a Saskatoon hospital. (Saskatchewan NDP/Submitted)

Some screening successes, SHA says

The SHA’s Richard Dagenais, however, said an “overall positive benefit” is being seen from the detectors and the success of their operation is being appreciated.

The interim vice president of provincial clinical and support services for the health authority said the implementation of metal detectors in Saskatchewan ERs has “been going very well,” calling the rollout to various sites “really, really successful,” and “very well received.”

“We are seeing, for sure, fewer safety incidents where our staff, our nurses, our physicians (and) our other affiliated health-care providers are no longer in those sites reporting that they found a knife on a patient or they had to disarm a patient while they were providing care,” Dagenais reported.

He called it a “significant decrease or practical elimination” of those concerns, though the SHA has not yet released official numbers on the success of the metal detectors. That information, Dagenais said, is still in the process of being collected.

In addition to the first metal detectors — installed in January 2026 at Saskatoon’s City Hospital, St. Paul’s Hospital and the shared emergency department entrance for Royal University Hospital and Jim Pattison’s Children’s Hospital, as well as Regina’s Pasqua Hospital and Regina General Hospital — three more metal detectors were added to Regina Urgent Care Centre, Prince Albert Victoria Hospital and Battleford Union Hospital in February.

“It’s still early days,” Dagenais said, “this is anecdotal, but the majority of comments and feedback that we’re getting is very positive.

“I think all of our staff and our patients are indicating that this helps them to feel more safe in their workspace and more comfortable as they’re coming into our facilities.”

Dagenais said it’s fair to say the same positive cumulative effect is happening in both rural and urban centres.

The metal detectors now installed in Saskatchewan emergency departments were ordered in Dec. 2025, according to the SHA, after a successful pilot program of the technology at the joint ER entrance to Royal University Hospital and Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital. To operate the detectors, SHA said the equivalent of 51 full-time protective services positions were being added across Saskatchewan for 24/7 staffing of the security devices.

“Most patients are very, very pleased or really have not expressed complaints. I think people understand that this is about making sure that we’re providing a safe environment for our staff and our patients, and I think everyone is well aligned to support that,” Dagenais said.

Detectors screening weapons and other objects

Objects are being found at metal detectors regularly, but there is a spectrum of things that protective services workers are finding, Dagenais said — from pen knives to baseball bats to crowbars.

Not all those objects have a sinister purpose, he clarified.

“Lots of times, people show up and they’re there to visit family or because they’re looking for medical attention and it’s very easy to forget that you have a pen knife in your pocket.” Dagenais said.

He explained that’s the purpose of lockers that have been installed in the metal detector areas — a place where people can securely store any goods they might not be allowed to bring into the emergency department or may not want to carry.

The bat, for example, was brought absent-mindedly into the hospital in a situation where someone was hit in the face with a softball during an indoor sports event.

“But for sure, there’s a significant number of weapons and other objects that we’re keeping for people while they’re receiving care,” Dagenais said.

Reliable statistics aren’t available yet on quantities of weapons being seized, Dagenais said, as data is still being collected and the health authority wants to ensure “really reliable statistics” before publicly releasing the information.

“Ensuring that we’re providing safe and equitable care is a core value of the Saskatchewan Health Authority and we’re really trying very hard to do that everywhere we provide care,” Dagenais said.

Patient access not impeded

While concerns were initially raised that one detector at a hospital entrance to an emergency department might not be enough — and might not cover off other entrances where patients or others might enter with weapons — Dagenais said the health authority was very “cognizant of the specifics of the layout of (each) facility and how we would arrange the metal detectors,”

He said patient convenience — having space for patients to remove their coats before going through a detector, for instance, allowing for quick patient flow through the machine — was a primary concern.

The layout of the hospitals in North Battleford and Prince Albert, he said, led to the decision to place detectors at the entrance to the hospital rather than the emergency department.

“It really supported the flow through the facility in a better way because in some of those facilities, it would have been more difficult to do it just for the emergency room area,” Dagenais explained.

When asked about concerns raised since the installation of the machines, Dagenais said there have been “some questions,” and said it is important to ensure everyone entering a facility is being screened by a metal detector. Exceptions are made for hospital staff with ID, though staff who have forgotten identification do have to go through the detectors as any other person would.

“That’s a little bit annoying, but we make sure that we’re fair and equitable,” Dagenais said.

He reported no significant wait times for being screened by the security device – another concern prior to the detector’s installation. Dagenais said space in front of the metal detectors was allotted to allow people space to wait and prepare for the detectors as needed.

“At peak hours, there might be two people in line in front of you, and everybody gets through in a minute or two,” Dagenais reported.

“Outside, we found that people are flowing into the departments and into the hospitals in a very timely way, even with the metal detectors in place.”

He added that staff operating the machines have been trained to spot signs of medical distress in people who might need more urgent access to hospital care.

“They’ll prioritize that person and get them through sometimes without needing to go through the metal detector, make sure they’re getting the care they need right away and then they can circle back with the screening if it’s appropriate,” Dagenais said, comparing the process to airport security for someone in distress ahead of a flight.

According to the health authority, there are no plans for more metal detectors to be installed in Saskatchewan hospitals. The province and its Ministry of Health is presently working on a “broader review of security services” at all facilities, assessing the provision of safe spaces, cultural accommodation and safety and security policies.

“We really want to leverage that review before we make decisions about further metal detector deployments,” Dagenais explained.

Doctors in favour

Dr. Pamela Arnold, president of the Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) and a critical care associate in Regina, said metal detectors are an issue that has been brought forward to the SMA by the doctors they represent.

She said a representative assembly the organization holds twice a year allows physicians to bring concerns and motions to the floor and attention of the SMA to be voted on by the elected members of the body.

“The SMA is aware of … the ask of doctors to have medical metal detectors implemented in our hospital environments,” Arnold said, “and so the SMA is knowledgeable on this issue and very much in support of moving forward best with metal detectors being installed in the hospitals to help increase the safety, not only to all of the patients who are usually accessing the hospitals, but our staff who work with inside them as well.”

Arnold was pleased to see the province make progress on the request. She said there have been numerous incidents where guns, knives and other weapons have been brought into hospitals.

“Anytime that we can decrease the risk of weapons coming into our hospitals and increase the safety of our staff and our patients, is something that we’re working towards.”

Arnold said she hasn’t had feedback yet on the recently-introduced metal detectors but said she is looking forward to the SMA’s representative assembly in May to hear updates from doctors in Saskatchewan on the topic.

Read more:

• Saskatchewan warned of helium supply cut because of Middle East war
• Metal detectors added to three more Saskatchewan health-care facilities
• Dozens of weapons, machetes, knives, seized at RUH in past three months: NDP