Report says psych ward video cameras could save lives

Patient safety called more important than the privacy issues


An Alberta (Canada) fatality inquiry's report found that installing video cameras in all rooms at psychiatric facilities could help prevent patient suicides, according to an article on the CBC website.

The report comes four years after a man was found hanging from a bed sheet tied to his bathroom door just one day after being admitted to 5-North, the psychiatric unit at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital.

The report recommends that surveillance cameras be installed in all psychiatric unit rooms at 5-North because "the safety of the patients is more important than the privacy issues that might be argued."

Past inquiries have made the same recommendation, but Alberta Health Services has not implemented it, the report said.

Read the article.

 

 



September 6, 2017


Topic Area: Security


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