The Ontario Ministry of Labour has charged Southlake Regional Health Centre with nine violations under the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act after a violent assault on a nurse and security guard one year ago.

If convicted, the Newmarket hospital could face fines of up to $1.5 million for each charge, ministry spokesperson Gloria Yip said.

The first court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 7 at the Ontario Court of Justice in Newmarket.

The Ontario Nurses’ Association has been pushing for Southlake to take action since the incident and a Ministry of Labour investigation last January.

“Thank goodness their feet are being held to the fire, but they could have remedied this long ago,” said ONA president Vicki McKenna. “It is sad that it came to this.”

The incident occurred Jan. 17, 2019, when a patient with mental health issues attacked an emergency room nurse and a security guard.

The registered nurse suffered a skull fracture and brain bleed. The guard was also struck in the head, resulting in an orbital bone break.

McKenna said the nurse continues to struggle after the traumatic experience, but hopes to return to work one day soon.

Hospital spokesperson Matt Haggerty said the hospital took immediate action after the assaults, noting more security guards were added to the area, physical changes to the space were made and a safety officer, dedicated to workplace violence prevention was hired.

Other changes include a new tool to help staff identify potentially violent patients, additional training to de-escalate situations and a new program to keep agitated patients calm.

The hospital also plans to open a new mental health assessment area later this year to provide a safer place to assess and treat mental health patients.

But McKenna says it is not enough.

The union, which represents almost 1,500 health-care professionals, has tried to work with Southlake to make improvements, but the hospital continues to be an unsafe place for patients and staff, she said.

“This is a hospital that is hugely over-capacity. There are a lot of difficulties at Southlake,” McKenna said, “but we have increasingly difficult problems with staffing. No one wants to come work there.”

While charges were laid against Southlake on Dec. 23, 2019, McKenna said the nurses’ union did not find out until this week.

The ONA will have a role in the court proceedings and a team is examining the detailed court filings, which involve charges related to the employer’s failure to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of workers, she said.

It is not common for a hospital to face charges under the health and safety act, she said, as the union is usually able to work with the employer to come up with a plan.

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“We have done everything she could to get them to act and do the right thing,” she said. “We have health and safety experts on staff who were working with (Southlake) providing best practises and options. We tried to coach them through it. But at the end of the day, we have a duty to protect the nurses.”

Haggerty said Southlake’s goal is to be a safe place for everyone and incidents like the assaults last January are “incredibly rare.”

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“Our understanding is that the Ministry of Labour charges are related to the conditions at the time of the incident,” he said. “They are not related to any subsequent actions that may or may not have been taken by the hospital following the incident.“

Haggerty said the hospital would not comment further as the matter is now before the courts.

“We remain committed to working with our staff and union partners to continue making improvements to ensure Southlake is as safe as possible for everyone who walks through our doors.”