Alberta\u2019s hospitals minister says a patient seeking care at a major Edmonton emergency room was taken into custody after attacking another patient on Friday.<\/p>\n
Matt Jones says in a social media post that Edmonton police and other hospital personnel quickly de-escalated the evening attack at the Royal Alexandra Hospital ER, north of Edmonton\u2019s downtown.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir actions helped ensure the safety of those present and provided timely care to the victim,\u201d he said in a post on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognize that incidents like this are unsettling. No one, patients, staff, or physicians, should feel unsafe in our hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edmonton police say its patrol officers who were already at the hospital noticed two men fighting on Friday at around 6:15 p.m., and stepped in.<\/p>\n
A 42-year-old man had to be treated for serious and life-threatening injuries at the hospital. Police say the other man was found with three edged weapons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThankfully, no hospital visitors, patients or staff were injured during this altercation. Police continue to investigate,\u201d an Edmonton police spokesperson said in a Saturday email.<\/p>\n
Police said the man with the weapons is facing charges, including assault with a weapon and two counts of failing to comply with probation.<\/p>\n
Sarah Hoffman, the Opposition NDP health critic, said in a post on X that about 50 people, including doctors, nurses and other patients, witnessed the attack and it was terrifying.<\/p>\n
She said a patient was stabbed in the attack and the government needs to invest in hospital security and health-care staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the patients and staff who witnessed this: you deserve better. To the patient who was attacked: you should be safe in our hospitals,\u201d she said in the post.<\/p>\n
Jones said his government is working to speed up the implementation of an already-approved security plan for the hospital and the hospital has increased its security personnel.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Alberta Health Services) is advancing a weapons screening program for the site,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe request for proposals has closed, and we are working to accelerate implementation timelines. This program will add an additional layer of protection for both patients and staff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta\u2019s hospitals minister says a patient seeking care at a major Edmonton emergency room was taken into custody…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-582496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}