A third-party review into the safety and security of Saskatchewan hospitals, led by a former police chief, is expected to involve more than two dozen people and cost the province $1 million, according to the health ministry.
On Thursday, the province announced that former Saskatoon police chief Clive Weighill, who fronted the force for 11 years until 2017, will be taking the helm of the review, leading a team of around 30 people to review current safety practices at Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) facilities and provide recommendations to improve safety for patients, visitors and staff.
Many on the team are retired police officers, while others are experts in specific areas, including infrastructure issues, screening devices and cameras, said Weighill.
“We also have some people who can do very good interviews with stakeholders to make sure we get the proper information,” Weighill said in an interview with Global News.
Saskatchewan’s health ministry announced in January it was launching a review into hospital safety at the request of the SHA following a string of violent incidents and mounting concerns at facilities across the province.
The province did not attach a dollar figure to the review when revealing the contract recipient on Thursday, instead sharing it with Global News upon request.
Weighill said his team will visit 26 hospitals across the province — from Estevan, Sask., in the south to Île-à-la-Crosse, Sask., in the north — as part of a review expected to consist of three or four phases.
The first phase will focus specifically on information gathering and stakeholder engagement, said Weighill, which will involve gaining a grasp of the current state of SHA facilities over the next two months, comparing results with those of other jurisdictions across Canada and developing recommendations.
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As for stakeholder engagement, Weighill said he plans to talk to unions, protective services officers, First Nations organizations, and new immigrants to Canada.
“Because certainly there’s some social, cultural, and language barriers that might be affected here,” he said.
He said his team has already reached out to the First Nations Health Ombudsperson and set up a meeting for next week, and also plans to engage with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, individual tribal councils, Métis-Nations Saskatchewan and the SHA’s elders advisory committee.
The review will also look at training and policies and procedures for protective services officers, along with legislation and regulatory issues.
The announcement of the review also came weeks after the death of 36-year-old Trevor Dubois, who died on Jan. 9 following an altercation with security staff at Royal University Hospital (RUH).
But the review will not investigate the circumstances of the incident, as it is “not in our scope,” said Weighill. Instead, previous incidents and complaints from the last five years will be reviewed at a high level to identify trends, he said.
“Those past happenings will not be investigated by us. We’re not doing a specific investigation into individuals, we’re looking at the whole service-wide review.“
The review is expected to take six months, with a final report including recommendations due to the ministry’s office by Oct. 31.
In the meantime, the health ministry says the SHA has put out a request for proposals for third-party security services at a number of facilities across the province.
However, unions representing protective service officers across the province say these positions are continually going unfilled because of poor retention.
“The wages are not competitive,” said Jason Monteith, SEIU-West vice president.
“When people do get hired, they’re being recruited and they’re actually going to police services, corrections, so they’re not staying in health care because the skills that these workers bring are incredible.”
Monteith adds that, due to poor retention, security workers are often short-staffed, leaving them vulnerable and that the situation has not improved since concerns were initially raised earlier this year.
“We’re still hearing from our officers on a regular basis that it hasn’t changed. In fact, it’s continuing to get worse,” he said.
“The number one priority is we want our officers to be safe, but we also want to make the patients, the clients and the residents are safe as well.”
Currently, Weighill says he is putting teams together and drafting contracts for those who are not already contracted with Buckingham Security Services Ltd., the company awarded the contract by the province.
Weighill said he was contracted by the company specifically for the review and was given the title of executive director.
After leaving the Saskatoon Police Service, Weighill served as Saskatchewan’s chief coroner until his retirement in early 2024. Since then, he says he has been working in the private sector and feels his past makes him well-equipped for the job.
“I know the province of Saskatchewan, I certainly know security and safety from my policing career, so I think I have a good rounded-out experience,” he said, adding that he feels the task is an important one, considering he or his family could be at the hospital and would want to ensure they are safe.
Once teams are established, Weighill said he plans to schedule interviews with stakeholders.
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