There may be changes coming to security practices to the St Joseph's Hospital; in fact, they're currently looking at strategies for all facilities within the Saskatchewan Health Authority.
Officials hope this process will make sure that all hospitals and facilities ensure the safety of staff, visitors and patients, according to the Executive Director of Infrastructure Management, Derek Miller.
"The intent of the review is really two-fold. One is we brought together the 12 health regions into a single health authority. We want to create a provincial program for security," explained Miller. "We want the review to basically describe to us the current state of security across our various facilities. And the second part of the report is about recommendations, about how we would structure and operate provincial security programs."
When exactly these changes or upgrades will be implemented is still up in their air as they are waiting for the report. Once they have it, they will have to go through it line by line to make any determinations.
"We are anticipating receiving the report likely in a month or so, likely in August. At that point we'll be reviewing it internally and considering the various recommendations. At that point, it'll inform us of our next steps as we develop our strategy for setting up this provincial program for security."
Here in Estevan, Greg Hoffart, Executive Director at the St. Joseph's Hospital is awaiting the results of the review.
"We have heard no results from their security review at this time. I think that there are definitely areas of the province where security is of great concern in facilities. So we will be interested to see what their reviews and the results of such a review."
Written by Hayley Hart/Emily Kroeker