Health care staff in B.C. will soon be required to report gunshot and stab wounds to police.
Solicitor General Mike de Jong says the new legislation is necessary to clarify standards of practice for health care workers in the province.
"Situations would arise where the police were discovering sometime after the fact about an individual coming in with a gunshot wound," he said.
Under the bill, staff must report all gunshot wounds to police along with the patient's name and the name of the health care facility. They are instructed to do it as soon as possible without interfering with the patient's treatment.
Stab wounds won't have to be reported if they are accidental, de Jong said.
"(If you're) slicing onions and you cut yourself at home we don't necessarily need the police to be notified," he joked.
The language of the bill obligates health care facilities, not individual staff members, to notify police, de Jong said, to avoid putting doctors and nurses at risk.
Several provinces already require the reporting of gunshot wounds, but B.C. will join Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta in requiring both bullet and stab wounds to be reported.
With files from The Canadian Press
