Saskatchewan health minister talks hospital security on The Evan Bray Show

Safety at health-care facilities is a growing concern across Saskatchewan.

In response, the provincial government has added metal detectors at the entrances to some emergency departments and announced plans for an independent review of safety and security at hospitals.

Read more:

• Metal detectors coming to Saskatoon, Regina hospitals after continuous abuse towards health-care workers
• Sask. government aims to improve safety at hospitals through independent review
• Dozens of weapons, machetes, knives, seized at RUH in past three months: NDP

Jeremy Cockrill, Saskatchewan’s health minister, joined the Evan Bray Show on Friday morning to discuss the concerns around safety and the actions being taken in response.

Listen to the full interview with Cockrill, or read the transcript below:

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

EVAN BRAY: So metal detectors, we heard over the last week or so, will be added to security and presented as part of a solution to workplace violence in our hospitals. What else needs to happen to ensure that we’re making some positive steps to the safety of people in our health-care institutions?

JEREMY COCKRILL: Well, Evan, let me just start by saying this is a challenging conversation. I saw your clip from from your show yesterday. There is no place for weapons in a health-care facility. I can’t think of a situation where bringing a weapon into a health-care facility is going to improve the quality of care that you’re going to receive from our Saskatchewan health-care teams. So obviously we need to take steps to ensure that patients feel safe, and the staff providing that care feel safe as well. Metal detectors are one of those tools. We have them going in at the large, urban emergency rooms in Regina, Saskatoon, coming in Battleford and Prince Albert, as well as the Regina Urgent Care Centre in February And this is really why, in addition to that, we are moving forward with this review, to really ensure that we can take a wider look at protective services in general at health-care facilities, and really start to narrow in on some key steps that we can take, in addition to adding metal detectors to make sure that everybody can be safe.

There’s a few people that are asking, is this in response to any specific incidents? I know we had the tragic incident where Trevor Dubois, a patient in Saskatoon who got into an altercation with security, died a short time later. Is this in response to any one thing in particular?

COCKRILL: No. I think the reality is both our health-care staff and patients in the province are seeing the complexity of some of these interactions really increase over the last several months and years. And health-care facilities are places where people should expect to feel safe and secure as they receive care. So the metal detectors specifically have been in the works for several months now. Obviously this review, as I’ve just been observing different things in the health-care system over the last month or so, I was thinking it’s time for us to step back, take a look at what we’re doing and then ensuring that it’s meeting the needs of Saskatchewan patients and health-care workers.

I know there was a review done in 2018. I don’t know how similar it was or will be to the one that you announced yesterday, but are there similarities? And if so, what do you think has changed since eight years ago?

COCKRILL: I think about the folks in law enforcement, and I know you’re not too far from that part of your career as well. Evan, I think our world has changed in eight years, and so it’s time to take another look. I can see the scope some parts of it being similar, some parts will have to be a little bit different. We’re looking for recommendations out of this review to come fairly quickly so that we can take action and, again, ensure that patients and staff feel safe. So there’ll be some similarities, but we’ll be looking for a fairly quick review process so that we can take action as quickly as possible.

How is the review being conducted in a way that it’s going to, I guess, give faith to everyone in the province that this is going to be a credible review and is going to yield tangible results that will mark change?

COCKRILL: I think it’s a little bit early to comment on who will be conducting the review. We’re still working out some possibilities there, but they will be independent from the Saskatchewan Health Authority and the Ministry of Health. And we’re just asking them to take a very clear-eyed and honest look at what we’re doing, what other provinces are doing, and then really, just given the other resources that we have in the province, whether that be on the policing side or the social support side, ensuring that we really have the right plan going forward. We’re still kind of finalizing the scope and who will be conducting that review, but I do think it’ll be part of the start of an important conversation that we need to have around keeping patients and staff safe.

If I think about the what I would expect from you, in your position, a review and then some tangible steps forward is what I would expect, definitely, as part of the response to this violence. But I would suggest there also need to be some immediate steps to improve safety, which would probably fall more under the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA). Can you comment? Have you given any direction on things need to be looked at differently to keep people safe?

COCKRILL: Obviously the metal detectors are kind of that immediate step. The hiring of 51 additional protective services officers in the SHA and our third party partners as well, to add more to that protective services workforce that is present in our health-care facilities. And then certainly taking a look at the training and the support that we are providing protective services officers currently. But obviously that will also be part of the review discussion as well.

I take your point on that. And for sure the metal detectors, the enhanced security training and number of officers is good, but again, that’s not today. Is there something that can be done immediately? Because this morning, as you and I are talking, there’s a likelihood that something is going to happen today in one of our health-care facilities. Is there something immediate that can be done?

COCKRILL: Well, I would say the metal detectors are already having an immediate effect. What we’re hearing from from staff in these facilities where the metal detectors have been installed just this week, we’re seeing people come up and then turn around and leave the facility or go and go back to their vehicle, empty their pockets and then come back in. So I think it’s already starting to act as a deterrent. Obviously metal detectors are not going to be the only solution to this, but I would say, in terms of immediate effect, I think we’re already noticing slight changes in how people are behaving as they enter the buildings.

You mentioned you saw a clip from the show yesterday. I’m guessing you probably saw the clip where I was going off on a bit of a tangent to say we need consequences for these people that are jeopardizing safety for all of us in the province, our families that are using facilities, our family members and friends that work in these facilities. I have both. I have family members that work there. I’ve been there recently to visit friends that have been in the hospital and have seen firsthand some of the aggressive behavior, the bad language, the violence that can happen. Can we have consequences? Can we say, if the person isn’t in dire straits from a life-threatening situation, “No, we’re not serving you because you’re acting like an idiot”?

COCKRILL: Quite frankly, I think we’re going to have to get there at some point. You, myself and, I think, most people in this province, we have friends or family that work in health care, and all of us, at the end of the day, are patients in this province and are going to be visiting a health-care facility at one time or another. And we have to remember that’s the purpose of the health-care facility. We’re going there to receive care. And so if folks are going to our health-care facilities, bringing in dangerous items, bringing in weapons that will threaten other patients and staff, that’s unacceptable. There needs, there will, there are and there will continue to be consequences for that. And obviously, through this review and some of the other conversations that we’re having with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, if you’re not at the hospital to receive care or you’re at the hospital threatening other safety of other patients or staff, you shouldn’t be at the hospital.

I did a bit of a deep dive yesterday to confirm in my head that this is not a unique-to-Saskatchewan problem. I did random checks in places like Waterloo and Kamloops and Winnipeg, Red Deer, Moncton, and saw violence and aggression in hospitals against health-care staff is common and a problem across Canada. That said, is there anything your government, the Sask. Party government, could have done differently, to not be where we’re at today with this? Basically, what I’m saying is do you have any responsibility in where we’re at with the state of health care in the province?

COCKRILL: As you said in your question there, Evan, this is a Canada-wide challenge. This isn’t unique to Saskatchewan. Our responsibility is to understand the challenges in our specific province and try and meet those challenges, and ensure that we are putting Saskatchewan patients first and providing a safe environment for them and the folks providing that care. So our responsibility of them is to again meet that challenge, figure out what safety and security looks like in places like Prince Albert and Battleford and Yorkton and Estevan and Regina and Saskatoon. It may be slightly different than maybe other communities and cities in Canada, but we’re all facing the same challenge. It’s about how we meet that challenge.

Last question: There’s been some discussion lately in the media and around people in the SHA about this anonymous reporting line for health-care workers that the province is proposing. The NDP are critical of it, calling it a snitch line. What is this line and what do you hope to accomplish by it?

COCKRILL: Unfortunately, it’s another thing in the health-care system that the NDP has misrepresented and mischaracterized. Any large employer of any size, public or private, has a tool where employees can anonymously report issues. They may see violations of policy. People may not feel comfortable coming forward and sharing their name or speaking with their direct manager, but yet, if there’s things that are going wrong, that are wrong, the SHA wants to investigate that and correct that if needed. So this tool is to help with that, and I would say it’s common across large organizations in the public and private sectors.