St Joe’s workers fearing for safety

Frontline workers at St Joseph’s Healthcare are calling on the province to act immediately after a patient was beaten to death by another patient last week.

The workers say current conditions put their safety at risk, adding this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. They’re calling for a coroner’s inquest — and planning a rally to push the province to act.

The beating death happened last Tuesday in the soccer field behind St Joe’s psychiatric facility. As well, a nurse was severely beaten by a patient two years ago. At that time staff says they warned hospital officials that overcrowding is putting worker and patient safety at risk.

In reaction to last week’s killing, 1100 delegates at CUPE’s annual meeting in Windsor voted unanimously for an emergency resolution calling for a public coroner’s inquest into the patient death. In that incident involving two patients staying at the forensic unit Michael Brewer, 30, was killed. Soon after, police arrested Tyler Michael Valcheff, 32, and charged him with first degree murder.

Today CHCH News learned that both Valcheff and Brewer have histories of violent crime.

The unit is meant to house a total of 20 patients total, but according to a press release from the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, there were 26 patients there at the time of the incident and recent cost cutting has included layoffs of nurses, leaving the unit understaffed.
A 2006 coroner’s inquest into the deaths of residents at Casa Verde, a long-term care home in North York recommended increased staffing in similar units.

The council is planning to rally on June 7th in Hamilton in the hopes of forcing the province to act.

Video: Sean Leathong reports: