HSC’s new safety officers unarmed on first day at work despite directive from health minister

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This article was published 15/04/2024 (541 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

New Health Sciences Centre security officers began work Monday without pepper gel or the skills to use it, despite an explicit directive from Manitoba’s health minister.

“I did give direction last week that they need to be carrying pepper gel,” Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara told reporters Monday. “That training is actively happening.”

News that the just-deployed “institutional safety officers” are still not armed with anything other than verbal de-escalation techniques at Manitoba’s largest hospital amid an increase in violent incidents is “disappointing,” the head of the Manitoba Nurses Union said.

“We were led to believe last week that the ISOs would be starting today at Health Sciences (Centre) and carrying pepper gel — with the ability to use it,” MNU president Darlene Jackson said Monday.

The union has filed grievances pushing for more robust security measures throughout the inner-city hospital campus to better protect staff, patients and the public.

“So it’s a bit disappointing to find out that they haven’t actually been trained and that there’s been no date given as to when they will be trained,” Jackson said.

Manitoba’s previous Progressive Conservative government passed legislation paving the way for the classification of institutional safety officers in 2021, expanding the scope of specialized security guards. The law allows peace officers to receive specialized training to become ISOs, authorizing them to carry batons, pepper gel and handcuffs.

Before forming government in the fall, the NDP criticized the Tories for failing to train and hire any institutional safety officers at hospitals or post-secondary school campuses.

Last month, Shared Health said a complement of 12 ISOs for HSC was being trained in a course developed by Brandon’s Assiniboine Community College.

The officers with authority to restrain people were expected to “assist with a variety of tasks and interactions to promote an increased sense of safety and security in and around the HSC campus,” a Shared Health spokesperson stated at the time.

“This new classification of security employee will enhance safety for patients, visitors and staff across health-care facilities, delivering a focused approach to patrol duties, perimeter security and major incident response with the tools to intervene, de-escalate and resolve issues.”

In total, 105 ISOs will be hired in the coming months at sites across Manitoba, with three further training classes scheduled through June, a Shared Health spokesman said.

In addition to HSC, they will be deployed at St. Boniface Hospital, Victoria General Hospital, Brandon Regional Health Centre and Selkirk Mental Health Centre.

Shared Health told the Free Press last week that the HSC safety officers would not, initially, be armed with batons or gel, given the hospital setting.

A spokesman said there were concerns about the potential use of pepper gel in a hospital and that the health authority did not want to create a situation in which some patients who might be uncomfortable around armed, uniformed security personnel chose not to seek needed medical assistance.

Asagwara said it’s expected the ISOs will be trained to carry pepper gel in “short order.”

The health minister also expects to receive regular updates on safety and security measures in place at HSC.

Last week the arbitrator who heard a grievance filed last summer by the MNU concerning exterior safety at the HSC campus ruled that staff face an “unacceptable level of risk.”

Kris Gibson gave Shared Health, the provincial authority responsible for HSC, 30 days to create a safety plan.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca