Minister Terry Lake issued the following statement on a violent incident that took place in Hillside Centre in Kamloops last night and on a team that has been brought in to review the incident:

“Last night, a serious incident occurred at Hillside Centre in Kamloops, where a nurse was injured in an assault by a patient. The nurse responded in self-defence while other staff members initiated a code white team response and intervened.

“I understand that the nurse has received treatment for her injuries and is recovering at home. Critical incident debriefing is being provided on site today.

“I am very concerned by this incident and have asked that a team made up of a representative from the ministry, Interior Health and the BC Nurses’ Union go into Hillside Psychiatric and immediately review what happened and bring recommendations back to the ministry and health authority on improving safety at the centre. I will be joining BCNU president Gayle Duteil and the health authority in a meeting at Hillside Centre tomorrow, April 17th.

“We have made a commitment to the BCNU to work together with unions and health authorities to improve the safety and security of our health-care workers and our patients.

“A violence prevention summit between health authorities, union representatives, WorkSafe BC and HEABC last week led to a commitment to broadly look at ways to improve safety in facilities throughout the province. We’ve started this work in four of the most high risk facilities, including Hillside Centre in Kamloops, Forensic Psychiatric Unit in Port Coquitlam, Seven Oaks Tertiary Mental Health in Victoria and Abbotsford Regional Hospital. Certain facilities, such as psychiatric facilities, experience greater challenges when it comes to workplace violence, because they care for some of the most complex, and sometimes unpredictable, patients, and we need to take a close look at these facilities.

“Violence is never acceptable in health care or anywhere else. The ministry has also begun work on a violence prevention action plan that comes out of the violence prevention summit that was held last week. The review into this incident will support this action plan. The plan will be complete and made public by early summer.”

Background on Hillside:

Hillside Centre is a 44 bed facility located on the Royal Inland Hospital campus. It opened in February 2006 and provides services to both adults and elderly individuals with acute illness and/or severely dysfunctional behaviours who cannot be cared for in the psychiatric system in their own area. The focus is on diagnosis and stabilization with rehabilitation strategies to promote stabilization and reintegration into the community to return home.

Media Contacts:

Laura Heinze
Media Relations Manager
Ministry of Health
250 952-1887 (media line)