Toronto Public Health faces staffing crisis, plummeting public trust and dwindling resources, report finds
Toronto Public Health (TPH) is facing a loss of staff, resources and public trust following COVID, a recent report to the city's board of health finds.
The annual report is a summary of challenges the agency is facing — from a staff exodus to a torrent of public health misinformation in the wake of the pandemic — as well as potential solutions to those problems.
Gta
Eileen de Villa talks COVID, scarves and her guiding spiritual principle as she prepares to leave Toronto Public Health
Toronto's outgoing medical officer of health talked to the Star in a wide-ranging interview
'TPH continues to meet its mandate and provide high-quality and evidence informed public health interventions to the people of Toronto,' Dr. Na-Koshie Lamptey, the city's acting medical officer of health, said in an email to the Star. 'Risks can be fluid in nature, as such risk management is an ongoing process for the organization.'
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A shallow talent pool
TPH is experiencing a staff exodus, following employee burnout and fatigue in the aftermath of the pandemic, according to the report. Adding to this are increased demands to address disease outbreaks, the drug toxicity epidemic and emerging issues like extreme heat and declining air quality brought on by climate change.
The staffing crisis comes at a time when the agency is experiencing an uptick in retirements and the departures of staff for other opportunities, the report said.
It's the third year in a row that limited staff was flagged as a risk factor. The report deemed the issue a 'high risk,' assessing it as being both 'likely to occur' and having a 'substantial impact on time, cost or quality' of the agency's services.
'Toronto Public Health has taken action to address this risk,' the report said, noting the agency was dedicating resources to growing its employee wellness program.
Politics
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The new program will get the latest cancer drugs to patients at least nine months faster.
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Ontario government aims to fast-track cancer drugs in new pilot project
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Dwindling resources
The public health agency has exhausted much of its resources battling the COVID-19 pandemic, outbreaks of mpox and meningococcal disease, a worsening drug epidemic and other recent health emergencies, the report found.
As a result, it's been left vulnerable to other emerging public health issues. TPH is currently working on its ability to identify and respond to public health issues in a thorough and timely way, the report noted.
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This challenge was deemed a 'medium risk,' having been found 'as likely to occur as not to occur' but having a 'substantial impact on time, cost or quality' of its services.
To rectify the issue, the report recommended prioritizing public health incidents based on their population risk and enhancing relations with provincial, national and international jurisdictions for disease surveillance, among other strategies.
Loss of trust in public health advice
The report acknowledged that trust in public health institutions and their advice has plummeted following a barrage of disinformation, misinformation and general exhaustion in the wake of the pandemic.
Dwindling public trust was also deemed a risk in 2024. It was thought of as a 'medium risk,' assessed as being 'likely to occur' and having a 'notable impact on time, cost or quality' of services.
'This increases the need for meaningful population engagement to maintain public trust,' the report noted.
It recommended reinforcing TPH's position as a trusted and reliable source of information, partly through improved public messaging on the city's website.
Gta
Toronto Public Health says it saw 'many deviations' at gynecologist's clinic with potential HIV, hepatitis exposure
Toronto Public Health says it observed 'many deviations' that led to it notifying 2,500 patients of a potential exposure to blood-borne viruses.
Gta
Toronto Public Health says it saw 'many deviations' at gynecologist's clinic with potential HIV, hepatitis exposure
Toronto Public Health says it observed 'many deviations' that led to it notifying 2,500 patients of a potential exposure to blood-borne viruses.
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Style Blueprint
20 hours ago
- Style Blueprint
NursesMC is Turning Ninth Graders into Future Nurses
Share with your friends! Pinterest LinkedIn Email Flipboard Reddit If you've tried to schedule a check-up lately or waited a little too long in the ER, you've probably felt the effects of the national nursing shortage. With more than 78,000 nursing jobs currently unfilled across the U.S., it's not just an inconvenience — it's a crisis. And it's no surprise that the COVID-19 pandemic put this issue front and center. But in South Nashville, a new public charter high school, NursesMC, is gearing up to address the problem head-on, starting not in hospitals or universities, but in ninth-grade classrooms. Launching this fall, Nurses Middle College Nashville — or NursesMC, for short — offers a radically practical and refreshingly optimistic approach: train the next generation of nurses before they even toss their high school graduation caps. Backed by a $21.7 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies and formed in partnership with TriStar Health and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, NursesMC aims to create a seamless pipeline from high school to healthcare careers. And we're not just talking about future nurses memorizing anatomy terms from a textbook. Starting freshman year, students engage in immersive, hands-on learning experiences at local hospitals. By the time they hit 11th grade, they're interning (and getting paid for it), participating in simulation labs, and working directly with professional mentors. By graduation, they'll walk away with a healthcare certification, 12 college credits, and — unlike many of us at 18 — a clear career direction. Pin Dr. Andrea Poynter, a registered nurse and the Executive Director of NursesMC Nashville, is leading the charge. A Tennessee native with nearly two decades of clinical and teaching experience, Dr. Poynter believes that early, real-world experience is key to closing both opportunity gaps and hospital staffing gaps. 'NursesMC Nashville is here to be more than just a school — we are building a pipeline of future healthcare professionals who reflect the rich diversity of this city and are ready to serve their communities with skill and heart,' she says. 'By preparing students early for careers in nursing and healthcare, we're not only addressing workforce shortages but also strengthening trust between patients and providers, improving health outcomes, and expanding opportunities for families across Nashville.' That focus on diversity is intentional. The school is particularly committed to serving students from historically underrepresented backgrounds. In fact, the original NursesMC campus in Rhode Island, which opened in 2011, has seen enormous success with a student body that is nearly 90% Black, Hispanic, or from low-income communities. According to Dr. Poynter, 'within two years, 95% of past graduates were in the workforce and/or pursuing a higher degree in healthcare.' Nashville's new campus hopes to replicate — and expand upon — that success story. For current eighth graders ready to scrub in early (metaphorically speaking), enrollment is now open for fall 2025. The first class will kick off in August, and parents and students can learn more at ********** Keep up with the best parts of life in the South. Subscribe to StyleBlueprint! About the Author Jenna Bratcher Jenna Bratcher is StyleBlueprint Nashville's Associate Editor and Lead Writer. The East Coast native moved to Nashville 17 years ago, by way of Los Angeles. She is a lover of dogs, strong coffee, traveling, and exploring the local restaurant scene bite by bite.
Toronto Star
a day ago
- Toronto Star
‘There is something wrong': Patients say they are paying out of pocket for cataract surgeries at private clinics
It all started at the optometrist. Stephen Purdey was at a regular checkup to update his prescription last summer when his optometrist flagged something in his eye. The optometrist thought it was cataracts, but recommended Purdey visit an ophthalmologist to confirm. So Purdey visited a private clinic in Toronto in March for a consultation after months on the wait-list to see a specialist, and that is where he said he started to feel 'vulnerable and susceptible.' 'Because of the combination of wanting to do the best thing for yourself,' said Purdey, who is in his 70s. 'Plus not necessarily understanding everything that the doctors are telling you, you really are as a patient vulnerable to suggestions.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'And that's what happened to me.' The ophthalmologist he was referred to, according to Purdey, acknowledged that the patient could get his procedure done for free under OHIP. Cataract surgery is considered a 'medically necessary surgery' by the province, so even if a person opts to go to a private clinic they shouldn't be billed for the basic OHIP-covered procedure. Patients who spoke to the Star said they went in for cataract surgery at private clinics and felt they had to pay between a couple of hundred and thousands of dollars out of pocket, whether to bypass reportedly long wait times or receive better treatment, including upgraded lenses. Their stories come at a time when the provincial government continues to expand the number of privately run surgical and diagnostic centres performing cataract procedures, a move first announced two years ago. They also raise questions about whether there are sufficient guardrails in place to make sure patients don't feel pressured to pay out of pocket for upgrades they may not need. In Purdey's case, he said his ophthalmologist offered him other options, such as laser-based eye measurements, instead of a free ultrasound measurement, and 'better quality' corrective lenses — treatments that would cost money but, to Purdey, sounded appealing. 'Right away you have the impression that lasers are better than ultrasound,' he said of the measurement procedure. 'And they said, 'Yeah, that's true.'' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Laser-based measurements have been found to be more accurate than an ultrasound, although the American Academy of Ophthalmology notes that there does not appear to be a difference between using a laser or ultrasound during the cataract surgery itself. Purdey was convinced, however, so he agreed to spend $650 on the laser measurements and an astigmatism test and said he'd consider paying another $200 to $1,600 for the so-called better lenses, then went home. 'Out of control' The four patients who spoke to the Star for this story are older adults who were worried that they might forever damage their vision if they didn't get surgery for their cataracts. Some of these same patients also said they didn't think they were given all the information they needed to make a decision about whether to pay for so-called better measurements and lenses. 'It is really out of control,' said Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC), an advocacy group focused on protecting public health care. 'Essentially it's like there isn't public medicare when it comes to eye surgery in Ontario,' says Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, an advocacy group focused on protecting public health care. 'It's gone.' Richard Lautens Toronto Star Things have gotten so bad from the perspective of the OHC that the group is filing formal complaints with the provincial and federal governments next week, Mehra said. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW She said some private clinics around the province bill OHIP for medically necessary cataract surgeries, as they are allowed to, but also charge patients 'mandatory' user fees for things like eye measurements or the surgery itself in a practice known as extra-billing — which is illegal under Ontario law and a breach of the Canada Health Act. Extra-billing also includes charging patients for speedier care. Mehra noted that the onus to report extra-billing to the province is on patients, many of whom do not realize that such 'mandatory' user fees aren't allowed. After investigating, if the province finds that extra-billing took place, it is required to report this annually to the federal government. Ottawa, in turn, will then claw back a certain amount of funding for the province's medicare program under the Canada Health Act. And, on top of the extra-billing, private clinics are charging patients add-ons under the guise that they are medically necessary for cataracts, Mehra said. Last year, Mehra said the coalition received more than 200 complaints over alleged extra-billing for cataract surgeries, one of the top two concerns the group heard from Ontarians. The other was about patients being kicked out of hospital before they are ready to be discharged. And Mehra said she believes there are probably thousands more who just don't know that they're being charged for what should be a free procedure. For its part, the provincial Ministry of Health said that 32,000 people had publicly funded cataract surgery at community surgical and diagnostic centres in 2024. 'We will continue to deliver more connected, convenient care in every corner of the province, always ensuring that people are accessing the care they need with their OHIP card, never their credit card,' ministry spokesperson Ema Popovic said in an emailed statement. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Still, Mehra said the complaints heard by the OHC run counter to the intentions of the province's medicare system — something patients also echoed in interviews with the Star. 'Essentially it's like there isn't public medicare when it comes to eye surgery in Ontario,' Mehra said. 'It's gone.' Hazy advice Up until her death in April from complications following cardiac surgery, something about a procedure Judith Deutsch had on her cataract back in 2022 didn't sit right with her, said husband Jim Deutsch. Judith Deutsch, pictured here in March, didn't 'feel good' about her experience seeking care for her cataracts three years ago up until her death in April, husband Jim said. Family photo Three years earlier, the Toronto couple had decided to go to a private clinic after they were told the wait time for cataract surgery covered by OHIP 'was going to be too long' by a doctor at a separate clinic. They considered the situation to be an 'emergency' — she incurred a concussion and a gash on her face because she couldn't see well — so the couple was willing to pay out of pocket to get care faster. 'It was going to cost a lot of money,' Jim told the Star. 'But she kept falling and just wanted to get it done as quickly as possible.' Jim said he doesn't believe that he and his wife were scammed — they were aware of the private option and had the means to afford it. But he said the couple still didn't 'feel good' about paying to 'jump the queue' for Judith's surgery. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The OHC's Mehra said that long wait times are commonly mentioned by doctors at private clinics to encourage patients to pay out of pocket for their surgeries. 'They say the wait times in the public hospital are two years, which they are not,' Mehra said. 'Most people are getting it in 90 days, so they lie to patients and convince them to pay.' According to the province's surgery wait-time website at the time of publication, the average wait time between a referral and the first clinician appointment for the lowest priority patients is 100 days. Meanwhile, the average wait time between a clinical decision for a surgery and the operation itself is 103 days. It's not just wait times; doctors also upsell patients with 'medically unnecessary stuff,' Mehra said. She said the OHC has heard from past cataract patients that they were encouraged to buy corrective lenses that address non-cataract issues like astigmatism. Judith was one of these patients, with Jim saying his wife ended up paying more than $5,000 for her surgery, including specialty lenses that she thought were connected to her cataracts and would lead to better outcomes for her vision, but later learned were for other eye conditions. Although the couple willingly paid more to get faster care, they say they weren't aware the specialty lenses weren't necessary. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Mehra said she has also heard of patients being charged for post-operative medicine — something Paula from Barrie told the Star separately. Paula told the Star she had to pay $230 for eye drops after her 2023 surgery at a private clinic, on top of the $5,000 she paid for special lenses and to get faster care. (She said her ophthalmologist told her the wait would be over a year if she did not pay $2,500.) 'That's not right,' Paula said of the eye drop charges. 'They should be covered.' The Star agreed to use only Paula's first name since she has glaucoma and worries that speaking publicly could interfere with her ability to receive care. While Paula knew going into her surgery that she wanted to get upgraded lenses and extra measurements, she said the ophthalmologist didn't ask her if she wanted the upgraded measurements. 'They should have asked me,' she said. 'If there were two options, they should have given me the option of 1 or 2.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Patients blame issues with medicare system Jim Deutsch thinks that his wife's experience seeking care for her cataracts stems from a failure of Canada's medicare program. Business She paid $8,000 for cataract surgery at a private clinic on a doctor's referral. She says no one told her OHIP had a free option The office of Ontario's Patient Ombudsman received some 4,429 complaints in the 2023-24 fiscal year — the most since it opened in 2016. Business She paid $8,000 for cataract surgery at a private clinic on a doctor's referral. She says no one told her OHIP had a free option The office of Ontario's Patient Ombudsman received some 4,429 complaints in the 2023-24 fiscal year — the most since it opened in 2016. 'Medicare ended up being something that was quite different from what (Tommy Douglas) originally imagined,' said Deutsch, a psychiatrist who moved to Canada from the U.S. decades ago to work in the country's public system. 'Along the way we've ended up with this situation of scarcity and profit and allowing there to be private clinics that will offer something more speedily.' Paula, too, believes the current system isn't fair — even if she said she would pay out of pocket again to get her surgery done faster. 'There is something wrong with the whole system,' she said, describing it as 'two-tier medicine.' The OHC pins the blame on the Ford government, specifically the passage of Bill 60: Your Health Act in 2023. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The legislation allows more private clinics to provide certain publicly funded procedures, including cataract surgery. The provincial government said the Act was intended to reduce long wait times, while critics, including the OHC, said it would draw resources away from public hospitals. 'No one is able to regulate and control the private market for health care,' Mehra said. 'The most sensible thing we can do is bring (cataract surgeries) back into public hospitals.' The Ministry of Health's Popovic stood by Bill 60 in her statement to the Star. 'To be very clear, Ontario has provisions through legislation that prohibit a patient from being charged for an OHIP-covered service, legislation that was strengthened by our government through Bill 60,' she said. Popovic added that anyone who believes they have been charged for an OHIP-covered service can contact the Commitment to the Future of Medicare Act program to ask for a review, and that those who have been found to have been billed will be reimbursed. 'Narrowly missed getting trapped' After coming home from the private eye clinic, Purdey changed his mind; he wasn't going to pay for the laser measurements or other add-ons. 'I was told that the laser measurement stuff was better,' he said, 'but they didn't really tell me how much better it was.' He called up the clinic to ask for the OHIP-funded procedures and in late May he had the first round of publicly funded surgery on one of his eyes. 'I'm quite satisfied,' Purdey said the day after his surgery. 'I feel like I narrowly missed getting trapped into spending a whole lot of money.'
Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Manitoba's regional authorities spent over $35M last year in the ongoing effort to keep hospital workers safe
Last Christmas Eve, a man walked into Thompson General Hospital with a loaded rifle concealed in his clothing. He moved through the emergency department and other areas — some full of patients — before taking an elevator to the second-floor chapel. No one knows how long the 33-year-old man was in the facility. He was discovered by a patient who wanted to use the chapel for prayer. The patient, hearing a commotion behind the locked doors, notified a nurse. Security was nowhere to be found. They showed up only after the gunman pointed the weapon at a nurse and fired a bullet through a window. The life-threatening scenario highlights a double-barrel dilemma facing Manitoba's health-care system: how much more needs to be spent on safety measures, which has already increased exponentially in recent years, and is what's already in place making a difference? The Northern Health Region, which oversees Thompson's hospital operations, earmarked $1.18 million for security measures last year, a tenfold increase from a decade ago. 'Our security officers that we have now are untrained, incompetent individuals,' said a Thompson nurse, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. In the last fiscal year, Manitoba's six regional health authorities spent a total of $35.4 million on security measures, according to freedom of information documents obtained by the Free Press. It's an expenditure that has been escalating over the last 10 years, according to the data received from each health authority, and includes equipment, call systems, staffing and contract costs for security guards. The breakdown for the RHAs — comparing spending in the 2014-2015 fiscal year to 2024-2025 — is as follows: • Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority jumped from $9,088 to more than $1.86 million. • Southern Health-Santé Sud increased from $336,911 to $1.51 million. • Prairie Mountain Health went from $678,485 to $4.69 million. • Northern Health climbed from $123,281 to $1.18 million; • Winnipeg RHA (excluding Health Sciences Centre) more than doubled from $5.26 million to $13.3 million. HSC spent $10.08 million in 2019-2020 and more than $12.8 million in 2024-2025 (only six years of data was provided for Manitoba's largest health-care facility). Experts and health officials say there are several reasons for the increase, notably enforcement of rules and restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and the dramatic way in which hospitals and their staffs increasingly find themselves on the front line dealing with a variety of societal struggles. 'Higher rates of mental-health problems and addiction within our population have contributed to increases in incidents of violence and aggression in ERs and other health-care settings,' Prairie Mountain Health CEO Treena Slate said in a statement. As a result, the western Manitoba region expanded its security personnel numbers to monitor sites in Brandon, Dauphin, Virden and Russell. Cam Baldwin, the provincial protective services lead for Shared Health, attributed HSC's spending to methamphetamine and opioid-related behaviours and ailments, often encountered first by police and paramedics. 'The crimes that are being committed are often related to those dependencies and the resulting outcome of that is many of them need to be treated in hospitals,' Baldwin said in an interview. 'Unfortunately, that has created the requirement for additional security within the hospitals.' In February, the province installed AI-powered weapon detectors at three HSC entrances. The machines have detected 491 'potentially dangerous items,' such as knives thus far. BROOK JONES / FREE PRESS In February, the province installed AI-powered weapon detectors at three HSC entrances. BROOK JONES / FREE PRESS In February, the province installed AI-powered weapon detectors at three HSC entrances. The HSC campus also now employs 42 institutional safety officers, who are specially trained to restrain people and are armed with pepper gel. The province has safety officers — in addition to private security guards — stationed at St. Boniface Hospital, Victoria Hospital, Selkirk Regional Health Centre and Brandon Regional Health Centre. A spokesperson for Southern Health-Santé Sud said a formal security program for the region was not in place until 2019 when baseline funding was established. Prior to that, security was funded on an ad hoc basis. A representative of Interlake-Eastern Health said costs are a reflection of increasing use of contracted and on-staff security services in facilities 'where necessary.' Northern Health did not respond to questions regarding security costs. The pandemic exacerbated violence and security issues in health-care facilities everywhere, according to a U.S.-based security consultant and former security executive for AdventHealth, a faith-based hospital network in Florida. 'A lot of that was politically driven by masks and people not wanting to wear the mask, not necessarily for health reasons, but because they had a political spin on it,' Bill Marcisz said. 'You can imagine what happens when a loved one is passing away, or you want to go visit your son or daughter being born and you're not allowed in there.' Mental health, addictions and the stress that goes along with health care are all factors in security spending, he said, plus there has been a greater push for facilities to document incidents. As more cases are recorded, the need for security increases, Marcisz said. 'There's a lot of things that go into this,' he said. The president of the Manitoba Nurses Union agreed. 'The reality is that we've seen a lot of facilities that have become less of a strictly health-care facility… our emergency departments are seeing more and more individuals attending them because it's a safe place to be,' Darlene Jackson said. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES 'A hospital health-care facility is really sort of a beacon of safety, so there are many issues that need to be dealt with,' says Darlene Jackson, President of the Manitoba Nurses Union. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES 'A hospital health-care facility is really sort of a beacon of safety, so there are many issues that need to be dealt with,' says Darlene Jackson, President of the Manitoba Nurses Union. Jackson said nurses constantly tell her waiting rooms are used as makeshift shelters because homeless people either can't access a shelter due to barriers or capacity, or they don't feel safe. People often come in with minor ailments to exploit the health-care system's long wait times and spend the night in a secure building, Jackson said. 'A hospital health-care facility is really sort of a beacon of safety, so there are many issues that need to be dealt with. And until those issues are dealt with, I don't see how we can do anything else and just keep increasing security costs,' she said. 'The issue is not in our emergency department. It's beyond the doors of our emergency department.' Manitoba Health is aware some patients in ERs need alternative care and is working with Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith to redirect them to shelters and other organizations, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Thursday. Working with homeless shelters and non-profits, as well as building a supervised consumption site and sobering centre are part of the government's plan to address the issue, Asagwara said. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Health minister Uzoma Asagwara says institutional safety officers are on the way for Thompson. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Health minister Uzoma Asagwara says institutional safety officers are on the way for Thompson. 'Our priority is making sure that people have the ability to access the right care at the right place at the right time,' the minister said. 'We're working across government to make sure there are more appropriate places.' More social workers and safety officers in hospitals could also help address the issue, Asagwara said. Dan Nodrick, director of development at Siloam Mission, acknowledged that transient individuals are using health-care facilities as a safe haven or shelter and that the problem will persist without an influx of more affordable housing. Siloam's daily capacity is 143 people, but the organization stretches it to 147 nearly every day. 'Three years ago in the summertime there was always room in the shelter. We've been full for two years solid,' he said. The Thompson nurse and her colleagues have been begging health officials for the institutional safety officer program to be introduced at their hospital. Security personnel hired by the Northern Health Region don't have the ability to physically intervene, leaving many health-care workers vulnerable to violent incidents, she said. 'There's been many situations… security may come out of the office and ask me if I'm calling RCMP,' she said. 'It's often a common occurrence. 'With the multiple socioeconomic barriers and constraints in Thompson… personnel that can actually intervene appropriately, we may see a decrease in the violence that we experience every day.' Only a few days after the Christmas Eve incident, there was another frightening scene. After arriving by ambulance, a patient began hurling insults, racial slurs and threats at emergency department staff while clenching his fists. 'I stood up in front of the patient — I'm only five-foot-one — and I said, 'You are going to leave the facility and when you are ready to be respectful, you can come back,'' the nurse said. 'I'm surprised I didn't get in trouble with my employer; even though we have a zero-tolerance policy it is never enforced. We are almost expected to take the behaviour.' Asagwara said institutional safety officers are on the way for Thompson, but in the meantime, the province is looking at instituting a First Nations Safety Officer program, which will hire and train safety officers from the community to work alongside hospital security. 'Health-care workers should be able to go to work and feel safe and focus on providing the best patient care possible,' the minister said. 'So should patients and visitors.' On William Avenue earlier this week, just outside Winnipeg's downtown core, a security guard clad in a black-and-grey uniform stepped out into the evening sun from HSC's adult emergency department. She scanned the scene from left to right before taking a few steps to peek around each corner of the entrance, something that happens every 15 minutes. The HSC campus employs 42 institutional safety officers. The HSC campus employs 42 institutional safety officers. Check completed, she walked back inside, to a vestibule where her partner sat next to the AI-weapon detector. Similar, but smaller than more-familiar metal detectors used in other venues, the equipment is adorned with Shared Health's logo colours of orange, yellow, teal and green. Just beyond it, a metal-detecting wand sits on a desk with a security log book beside it. Signs at the entrance door warn visitors of the security checkpoint ahead. Hammers, guns and knives are not welcome inside but can be stored in provided amnesty lockers. 'Thank you for keeping this facility safe,' the sign states. Nicole BuffieMultimedia producer Nicole Buffie is a multimedia producer who reports for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College's Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom in 2023. Read more about Nicole. Every piece of reporting Nicole produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
