Below are excerpts, from part 3 of the Montreal Gazette feature on security at the Montreal General Hospital, for the complete story click HERE to visit the Montreal Gazette.

The McGill University Health Centre is scaling back ambitious plans to train nurses and other staff at the Montreal General Hospital in crisis de-escalation despite the near-strangulation of a nurse by a patient in the psychiatric ER last September.

Although CNESST approved the MUHC’s plan on Dec. 20, the Montreal Gazette has uncovered documents that show that it falls short of the original version drafted five months earlier to address a rising number of violent incidents known as Code Whites. Under that first plan, 400 staff across the MUHC would have been trained in 2017-2018 at a total cost of $341,000.
However, under the new CNESST-approved plan, the MUHC will train 75 Montreal General staff mainly in CPI techniques during two days of practical lessons following a two-hour internet class —  in effect, halving the amount of training that the earlier plan envisioned. The Montreal General hasn’t completely abandoned the Omega method, but only two assistant nursing coordinators have been trained in it.

“Training to help MGH staff handle Code White violent incidents has been cut in half.”

The Gazette has found that the Montreal General allocates 20 per cent less security coverage than Notre-Dame Hospital, even though it reports more than double the number of Code Whites. The Montreal General’s security guards have themselves complained about the lack of coverage, especially for the overnight shifts, confidential documents show.
For the complete story click HERE to visit the Montreal Gazette.