Psychiatric Patients Terrorizing Health Care Staff in Montreal

"For a reason that has yet to be determined [the suspect] assaulted the nurse and used physical violence towards her."
"A patient attendant came to help her colleague, and the individual did the same thing to her."
Montreal police spokesman Benoit Boisselle

"We have fewer people on the night shift -- fewer nurses and patient attendants. We used to have a security guard in the emergency at all times, but that's not the case any more."
"There are two security guards on the sixth floor at the security desk, but that's it."
"We're a tertiary-care centre downtown and we have a lot of intoxicated and aggressive emergency patients."
"The McGill University Health Centre has to do something about this. We have nurses who are burned out and some of the senior nurses are leaving. It's just too much."
Senior nurse, MUHC, identity protected

The Montreal General experienced a number of incidents of violence aimed at staff by patients. the MUHC placed signage on prominent display everywhere within its facilities to remind the public that violence is construed as threats, insults and shouting as well as physical, and all have their harmful impact on the receiving end and will not be countenanced.

According to the anonymous senior employer, because the health facility was ordered by the provincial government to reduce its operating budget by tens of millions of dollars, resulting budget cuts in the past year have exacerbated the problem of health staff facing assaults from irate or mentally unstable patients.

The ER of the Montreal General was given responsibility over its regular workload to treat emergency psychiatric patients, as a result of the Royal Victoria Hospital with its psychiatric department having moved in 2015 to another site. Close to a year ago a patient attempted to strangle a nurse in the ER, wrapping a telephone cord around her neck.

The nurse never was able to return to work after the assault that occurred outside the psychiatric section. And it isn't nurses only who face these violent threats to their safety and security. "I was assaulted once by a patient in the ER and there was no security guard around. This is a story that needs to be told", stated a physician at the hospital, who, like the senior nurse, requested anonymity.

Still from video

More recently on Saturday morning a psychiatric patient in the emergency room of the Montreal General Hospital attempted to strangle a nurse. No security guard was present in the crowded downtown ER when this occurred, the second such attack in less than a year. Cuts to ER staff and the elimination of the overnight security guard stationed close by the triage desk has made nurses more vulnerable to such events.

Reserved for psychiatric patients, the secure section of the ER was the site of the attack on the 34-
year-old nurse who attempted to scream while being choked, and desperately thrust her fingers in her attacker's eyes, to little avail. She was saved by a female patient attendant, who while the attack was ongoing was returning to the nursing station.

There, she witnessed the nurse struggling under the weight of the patient, on the floor. The attendant leaped on the attacker's back, screaming for help, which drew the attention of a nearby male attendant who was able to restrain the man. But not before he had also attacked and attempted to strangle the patient attendant as well, while she was trying to save the nurse.

Police were called to the hospital where the 25-year-old male patient was arrested and charged with assault. Admitted earlier that very evening, the man appeared to have no criminal record. Having suffered non-life-threatening upper-body injuries both of the women, the nurse and the attendant, were hospitalized. Their physical injuries will heal, the psychological impact of what they experienced will be more enduring.

According to a hospital spokesperson, security was on duty at the entrance to the emergency room, while the psychiatric emergency unit had a separate guard on duty only throughout the day and evening. This assault took place at 2:30 in the morning. "We will be reviewing and debriefing fully on the matter, and maybe identify areas of improvement for the future", advised the spokesperson.

The Royal Victoria is just one of the hospitals that will make up the Glen site of the McGill University Health Centre. Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette