Belleville hospital patient charged over ER stabbing
A 42-year-old was charged with assault with a weapon and other crimes
A Belleville, Ont., man has been charged with assault after a security officer was stabbed in the emergency department of the Belleville General Hospital on Tuesday, according to police.
Officers responded around 12:20 p.m. to a report that a person had threatened staff and stabbed a security guard, Belleville Police wrote in a media release Wednesday. The situation was contained by the time police arrived.
People at the scene told police the 42-year-old man had come to the emergency room earlier that day for care and had been waiting on a hallway bed.
Police said the man "began to cause a disturbance" and threatened to stab hospital staff who approached him. When a security guard attempted to disarm him, a struggle ensued in which both men sustained stab wounds, police said.
The man and the security guard were treated at the hospital. The man was arrested and charged with assault with a weapon and other charges, police said.
Quinte Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CBC.
'Like a pressure cooker'
Nurses at the Belleville hospital have shared concerns about facing "regular" violence at its ER, said Erin Ariss, provincial president of the Ontario Nurses' Association.
The stabbing, Ariss said, is symptomatic of a provincial health-care system that's been struggling with a significant nursing shortage and a spate of emergency room closures.
"I don't think the Belleville hospital is an anomaly. I think what happened there could happen at any moment, on any day, in any emergency department in this province," Ariss told CBC Wednesday afternoon.
"Right now, it's like a pressure cooker."
With files from Trevor Pritchard