Report details how patient 'seriously injured' psychiatrist

Last Christmas Eve, a psychiatrist walked into the East Coast Forensic Hospital and asked two guards to help him deliver "bad news" to a patient secured in one of the hospital's therapeutic quiet rooms. The room, a concrete cell with a toilet and sink, is secured by a metal door.

Minutes later, the psychiatrist was on a floor of the Dartmouth, N.S., facility being pummelled by the patient, who had charged the guards "like a rhino" and managed to escape his cell.

It took at least four people to pull the patient off the doctor, who by then was "seriously injured" and needed to be taken by ambulance to the hospital.

The guards were able to overpower the patient and return him to his cell in handcuffs and ankle shackles.

The incident is described in a new Nova Scotia Labour Board report that details employee concerns about violence, inadequate searches and "a huge problem" with contraband, including synthetic THC, entering the psychiatric hospital in Burnside.

Final report

It's the final version of an interim report made public by the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) three weeks ago. Much of the attention then was focused on a patient's attack on a pregnant nurse, Natasha Tofflemire, on April 23, 2018. 

The 46-page report highlights other incidents, including a patient who threatened staff with a table leg and used a contraband lighter to start a fire in a room, as well as the Dec. 24, 2018, attack on the doctor.

The subsequent internal investigations and a continued pattern of inadequate action by officials convinced the labour board to order the Nova Scotia Health Authority to obtain a "comprehensive violence in the workplace health and safety assessment" of the facility.

Hospital employees who testified before the board complained that nurses were called on to search female patients when female guards were not available and that although the jail next door had a body scanner to try to prevent contraband entering that facility, the hospital didn't have similar equipment.

Concerns about inadequate training

Tofflemire told the board she felt the searches were inadequate in limiting the entry of illegal drugs into the facility and that she was ill-prepared to search patients.

"She said she was given a five-minute 'put on your gloves, here is what you do' during her first week of orientation but received no further training," according to the report's findings.

Lindsey Power, a licensed practical nurse and union member on the joint occupational health and safety committee, filed the complaint under the Occupational Health and Safety Act that led to the report's creation. She testified there was a "huge problem" with contraband entering the hospital.

Staff allege contraband increases violence

According to the report, "she described a lot of issues with synthetic THC." She told the board when ingested, the drug made patients "very violent, delusional, or paranoid."

"A lot of patient assaults have occurred while patients are under the influence of this substance," said the report.

Power and her co-workers also told the board the units were often short-staffed and that concerns about safety issues were downplayed or ignored by management.

Changes have been made to the facility, as a result of the complaints and subsequent public attention, including the addition of security cameras and new personal safety equipment, but not enough was done to satisfy the board that the health authority had the situation well enough in hand enough to handle things on its own.

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