North Bay police often forced to spend hours in hospitals for mental-health patient handovers
North Bay police Chief Daryl Longworth is hoping to meet with the city hospital’s CEO to discuss ways of streamlining the handover of mental-health patients.
At the police services board meeting Tuesday morning, Longworth said police spent more than 260 hours in two months at the North Bay Regional Health Centre waiting to transfer mental-health patients apprehended by police.
“We have a wonderful mental-health response through the police service here where we're partnered with mental health workers and nursing staff that work with and partner with our officers,” Longworth said.
Statistics showed that officers spent 117 hours at the hospital in January and 151 hours in February. That creates staffing problems on the ground, he said.
“The number of officers we have on the street is significantly diminished when we have to have officers tied up at the hospital,” he said.
“It's part of the Mental Health Act, which requires (police) to be there until they're accepted by the hospital.”
He’s hoping to meet with hospital CEO Paul Heinrich to discuss the matter.
“So it's just a conversation to see how we can speed up the process at both ends to get our officers back on the street,” Longworth said.
“My intention is to meet the CEO because I'm new here. There's a number of people in the organization and the community I'd like to meet and the CEO of the hospital is certainly one.”
Longworth added he would like to see a more streamlined process to make better use of both hospital of police resources.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
3 injured after man with knife enters Montreal-area mosque
Three men were injured after trying to subdue a man armed with a knife during afternoon prayers at a Montreal-area mosque Friday afternoon.
Police arrest 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole Porsche and ran over its owner
Police have arrested an 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole a Porsche and then ran over its owner in an incident that was captured on video.
Woman nearly shut out of mother's estate sues brother in B.C. Supreme Court – and wins
Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.
Teen arrested in New Brunswick after emergency alert; 5 people in custody
A 15-year-old boy who was the subject of an emergency alert in New Brunswick has been arrested.
Kamala Harris tells Oprah any intruder to her home is 'getting shot'
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday issued a warning to any potential home intruder: 'If somebody breaks in my house, they're getting shot.'
'We're still pushing hard': Search for missing Manitoba boy continues, RCMP find tracks
The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.
On the trail of the mystery woman whose company licensed exploding pagers
What Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, 49, the Italian-Hungarian CEO and owner of Hungary-based BAC Consulting, says she hasn't done is make the exploding pagers that killed 12 people and wounded more than 2,000 in Lebanon this week.
Four dead in northern Ontario house fire
Emergency crews in northern Ontario found the bodies of four people inside a home where a fire broke out Thursday night.
Top Hezbollah commander among 14 killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander and other senior figures in the Lebanese movement in an airstrike on Beirut on Friday, vowing to press on with a new military campaign until it is able to secure the area around the Lebanese border.