Staff at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre given personal alarms: Health authority

Staff at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre are getting miniature personal alarms as part of a new set of security measures for the hospital.

Staff areencouraged to keep the alarms on their person while working with patients and walking to their vehicles after work, a spokesperson for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority confirmed Friday.

The alarmsemit a loud screaming sound when triggered.

The spokesperson couldn't say whether all staff at the hospital would be given the alarms, or just people in specific roles.

The alarms areamong a handful of new security measures at the hospital in the wake of several recent violent incidents.

In October, the hospital announced plans to restrict after-hours access to select in-patient departments in an effort to improve security, and hired an additional security guardfor its emergency room.

Several violent incidents at hospital in 2018

The hospital has been the site of multiple violent assaults in the past yearwhere patients presented with aggressive and unpredictable behaviour, often involving meth use.

In one incident, a man believed to be high on meth attacked a nurse and three security officers.In another,two security officers were assaulted by a patient at theemergency department, although police said at the time meth was not believed to be a factor in that attack.

A September letter from the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union to the province referencedtwo other attacks at the hospital: one in January, when a corrections officer was stabbed with surgical scissors, and another in June, when a security officer was stabbed with a syringe full of blood.

In that letter, the union called for greater powers forsecurity officers at the hospital to deal with meth-related violence.