There is 24-7 security back in the Emergency Room at the Montreal General Hospital following the brutal attack of a nurse on Saturday of the long, Labour Day weekend. In the last six months, there have been two attacks on nurses at the hospital.
Union President Denise Joseph says the hospital is “putting the staff at risk” through staffing cuts, which she says have been ongoing for the last few years.
CJAD 800 called the hospital for comment as soon as we heard about the attack. The hospital told us to call back after the Labour Day holiday.
Two hours of bad headlines later, hospital spokesman and Director of Communications, Richard Fahey, confirmed that “security will remain (in the ER) until further notice.”
Joseph says the union has told hospital officials they can’t keep cutting employees and not expect things to go wrong.
“We keep telling them as Union that they cannot do that. They are putting the staff at risk.”
The Montreal General Hospital is a trauma centre and regularly receives patients from downtown who are intoxicated or who have mental health issues. Joseph says the hospital doesn’t have enough beds for these patients and that adds risk to employees and increases violence within the hospital.
The hospital says it will review the attack this week, but the union fears administration will remove overnight security again after this incident is no longer headline news.