REGINA -- An emergency room doctor in Regina is noticing an increase in the number of patients who come in to be treated for gunshot wounds.
"We're absolutely seeing an increase in the number of gunshot wounds presenting as traumas,” Dr. Terry Ross told CTV News. “I recall early in my career you might see one or two gun shots in a year and now we're seeing quite a few every month."
Ross has been an ER physician in Regina for 20 years.
By September 2019, the Regina General Hospital’s trauma centre had received 33 firearm injuries. This figure is up from 11 in 2014, and 15 in 2015.
"I don’t think violence overall has changed,” Ross said. “I think there has always been a significant element of violence in the community. It’s just that we're seeing a significant change in the mechanism where as people used to use knives and baseball bats, we're seeing more guns being used."
Regina police seeing increase in gun crime
According to the Regina Police Service from Jan. 1 to Aug 31 2015, there were 56 violent occurrences with firearms in Regina. During that same time period in 2019, there were 122 violent occurrences, that’s an increase of 118 per cent.
Regina Police also found the number of firearm victims increased between 2015 and 2019. From Jan. 1 to Aug 31 2015, there were 11 firearm victims. During that same time period in 2019, that number was 46 victims, that number represents an increase of 320 per cent.
The Saskatoon Police Service says from January to September of 2019, there were 20 violent occurrences with a firearm.
"How you deal with a gun call compared to a knife call is quite different,” Sgt. Casey Ward with the Regina Police Service said. “A lot of times when we’re dealing with knives and machetes, before you obviously wanted to teach officers time and distance. Now with the prevalence of firearms around, you have to make sure that you're in a safe area and how to deal with those situations."
RPS said the majority of gun violence that happens in Regina is associated with drugs or gangs.
"Now our officers, just in their day to day activities are pulling over a vehicle and are finding a loaded sawed off shot gun, stopping a person that was maybe a suspect in a break and enter with a backpack and finding a loaded hand gun,” Ward said. “Our front line officers are dealing with firearms on a daily basis."
Working in the trauma centre
Gunshot victims are transported to the trauma centre at the Regina General. The unit has a team who assists victims of trauma throughout their entire hospital stay and provide psychological care.
"Being seriously injured regardless of the mechanism can have a fairly profound effect on people,” Ross said. “We know that incidents of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatically injured patients are significant so being aware and having those initial conversations and having the system set to address those things and try and intervene to as soon as possible. It just makes good medical sense."
Ross said firearm injuries aren't the biggest change to Regina ERs, it’s drugs.
"The biggest thing that we've noticed that’s changed has been the escalation of drug use in the community, crystal meth and the crime that drives it," Ross said.
