Mackenzie Health will now report allegations of criminal behaviour to police

Hospital provides statement in response to yorkregion.com investigation

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 5, 2017
By Jeremy Grimaldi

After more than a year and a number of lingering questions in relation to alleged sexual assaults at Mackenzie Health Centre, the Richmond Hill hospital has said its policies now require all allegations of criminal behaviour at the hospital to be immediately reported to police.

Prior to publishing a story on Aug. 3, 2017, which focused on York Regional Police statements that management at Mackenzie Health actively attempted to hinder a sex assault probe in order to avoid civil litigation, yorkregion.com asked what the hospital would be doing to ensure this didn't happened again.

How had Mackenzie Health revised its policies to strengthen its "ability to share information and report incidents to police," as the hospital said in a statement released June 15, 2016?

In response, chief communications officer Krista Finlay said there would be no further comment to the original statement.

"We are standing by our statement of record and have nothing further to add at this point," she wrote in an email.

One of the alleged victim's daughter's says it important for the public to know the hospital's policy, considering she was forced to report the alleged crimes to police herself because the hospital refused.

One member of staff told her Mackenzie Health staff were not mandated to alert the police unless "it's a gunshot wound."

The woman, whose name is protected by law, says management also tried to stop her from reporting the incident to police.

It was on Sept. 12 that the hospital released additional information to yorkregion.com in an emailed statement.

"Our policy at the time was to report allegations to police only with the consent of the patient involved," the statement read. "We have since revised our policy, requiring all allegations of criminal behaviour to be immediately reported to police."