Thompson General Hospital in Thompson, Manitoba, is rolling out Institutional Safety Officers this year as it works toward 24/7 coverage, bringing a new level of security to the facility after a wave of violent incidents that prompted nurses to declare the workplace unsafe.
Five full-time officers have been on site since March 2026, according to the Northern Health Region, with the goal of having two officers on every shift alongside existing security guards as recruitment and training continue. The new officers are part of a provincial push that has brought the total number of ISO positions across Manitoba hospitals to 128.
The safety upgrade follows a series of serious events. On Christmas Eve 2024, a 33-year-old man barricaded himself in the hospital chapel with a .22-calibre rifle, pointed it at staff and fired through a window. In September 2025, a patient was stabbed. RCMP were called to the hospital 557 times in 2024 alone, nearly 1.5 calls per day.
In November 2025, nurses voted 97 per cent to grey-list the facility, the second time the Manitoba Nurses Union had taken that step at the time. (St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg became the third grey-listed facility in February 2026.) A nurse wrote to the health minister that staff had filed 39 safety reports over the past year with no response and that they face regular physical, verbal, emotional and sexual abuse.
The new Institutional Safety Officers are licensed as Peace Officers under Manitoba’s Police Services Act. They carry OC pepper gel, have special training in crisis intervention and de-escalation, and can detain people who pose a safety threat. The hospital also introduced Access Management on March 25, 2026, directing all patients and visitors through a single main entrance with screening and amnesty lockers.
“We are listening to front-line nurses and health-care staff,” Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara has said, calling the measures a layered approach to safety. The province has committed to eventually having eight officers at the hospital to ensure round-the-clock coverage.
