It’s an incident captured on video by Pauline Johnston on Sept. 3, seemingly showing a woman crawling away from Chinook Regional Hospital as two security guards watch, that has her asking the province to investigate hospital practices.
Johnston lives near the hospital and says she saw security take the woman off the property in a wheelchair and leave her at a nearby bus shelter.
“She started to crawl on her hands and knees back towards the hospital,” Johnston said. “She appeared to have on some kind of leg braces or mobility aids on her legs, like she couldn’t stand on her own. Then she was intercepted by hospital security.”
According to Johnston, she called Lethbridge Police who came and took the woman away.
She calls it just the latest instance where a person has been removed from hospital property and left without transportation.
“It’s increasing all the time, I would say once a week people are just being left in the bus stop,” Johnston said.
Johnston shared her concerns in an open letter to Premier Danielle Smith, along with other members of the provincial, municipal and federal governments.
She’s calling on the province to find suitable transport for all hospital patients once they’re discharged.
“I fully understand they can’t have disruptive people inside the hospital, but what are you doing with the vulnerable people?” Johnston said. “There’s a huge gap in services.”
In separate statements to Global News, both Alberta Health Services and Paladin Security confirm they’re investigating the matter.
“(AHS) takes these concerns very seriously. We are investigating and will take any necessary actions once that investigation is complete,” the statement from AHS reads. “In order to protect patient confidentiality, AHS cannot speak to specific patient cases.”
“We are aware of the alleged incident and are currently investigating the matter to ensure our team followed hospital protocol,” Paladin Security tells Global News. “Our training provides our guards with the appropriate tools to make informed decisions and provide the highest level of security to our clients.”
Whether or not protocol was followed, Johnston hopes people will have a different experience when leaving the hospital in the future.
“I’d like them to treat people with more respect and more dignity,” Johnston said.
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