Eastern Health fires 3 workers, starts external review after Waterford Hospital death
The head of Eastern Health said the health authority will be bringing in a group from outside the province, one with forensic and mental health expertise, to conduct an external review of their policies after a patient died on the forensic unit of the Waterford Hospital on March 13.
David Diamond said Thursday three employees were terminated from Eastern Health in relation to the death, saying that the patient did not receive the surveillance that was ordered.
"I think in this case the system failed the client," Diamond said.
Review of care for 'suicidal patients'
"In these cases a psychiatrist, or somebody that is in charge of the care, will order a certain level of surveillance, so it could be every hour, every half hour or every 15-minutes," Diamond said.
"The patient was appropriately placed on an order which was not carried out by the staff involved," he said.
Diamond added that Eastern Health will also be looking at the current level of education staff receive for patients who enter the forensic unit.
"There is already an education component in place for anybody who becomes a staff member in this area that speaks to the care of suicidal patients," he said.
"We will be reviewing that to ensure that that is appropriate and whether more education is needed."
Lawyer confirms death was suicide
While the health authority would not confirm that the death was a suicide, pending the official conclusion from the province's medical examiner, lawyer Bob Buckingham, who had represented the man, said it was suicide.
"It was a suicide, and initially the unit thought that the proper checks were in place, the 15-minute checks, they weren't," Buckingham said.
"I understand what happened was my client went into this room, closed the door, and then the checks were not followed up ... [the shut door] is an indication that something is up, that should have been followed up on," he said.
Buckingham said his client was initially in custody because of a peace bond.
"Then he allegedly broke the peace bond by sending text messages to one of the individuals he wasn't supposed to be sending messages to. He was arrested on that, released again, and told not to make contact, and sent more text messages," Buckingham said.
"So my client was in jail for breaching peace bonds over texting, that's why he was in jail."
Future legal action unknown
Buckingham added that he thought Eastern Health did move quickly in terminating the three workers who the health authority said are involved.
Buckingham said he is unsure if the family of the dead man will be moving forward with legal action because of what happened.
"I think they have to take a step back and analyze what has happened here and see where they go from there, you have a mom who has lost an adult son, and [legal action] is not going to take that back," Buckingham said.
In a news release Thursday, Eastern Health said an investigation began following the death, including "interviews with staff, physicians and sometimes patients, the review of clinical charts, and the viewing of security tapes."
Buckingham said the man's mother has been briefed on the investigation.
The man's death is not considered suspicious. However, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and the chief medical examiner are investigating.
