Man wielding pencil, throwing chairs subdued with stun gun at QEH ER

Charlottetown police say staff at Queen Elizabeth Hospital's emergency room declared a Code Silver protocol, meant for lockdown situations involving a weapon, early Monday morning.

The weapon in this case was a pencil, which police say a man was wielding in a threatening manner.

The incident is the latest to fuelconcerns from some QEH hospital staff about security.

Just after 1 a.m. Monday, police say they were called to the hospital to help handle a man in the ER who was in an agitated state and throwing chairs.

Officers subdued him with a stun gun.

Extra security hired for ER

Police are investigating and charges are possible but they said their first concern is that the person receive treatment.

In a statement, Health P.E.I. said there was security on site at the time, and patients and staff were cleared out of the ER during the incident.

"Staff have been provided with support as would happen after any traumatic event," the statement said.

In January, Health P.E.I. hired more security staff with higher levels of training and experience for the QEH ER.

The statement also said a further review of security, which was already planned, will go ahead in May.

Health P.E.I. has not made any changes to the hospital's security protocol as a result of this event.

Two nurses injured in previous incident

In another recent incident, the P.E.I. Nurses' Union reported thattwo nurses wereassaulted by a patient whobecame violent at the new mental health and addictions emergency room at the QEH.

In that case, the union said its earlier concerns about the setup and staffing levels of that new facility went unheeded.

The union said there are further unresolved security concerns from staff who completed exit surveys years ago, which it plans to discuss with Health P.E.I. administrators at a meeting within the next week.

In the P.E.I. Legislature on Tuesday, the provincial health minister talked about a more toxic drug supply and increasing violence putting strain on health-care workers.

There's no information from police about whether drugs were involved in Monday's incident.

"We have invested in security in order to protect our [health-care] workers," said Health Minister Mark McLane.

"We understand they're under some significant challenges in all of our facilities, so it's important that we protect them as much as we can."