A Highgate man is facing charges following a partial lockdown at all Chatham-Kent Health Alliance facilities Thursday.
According to Aaron Ryan, chief financial officer and vice-president of performance for CKHA, someone called into the CKHA switchboard in the morning and “made threats to the switchboard operator, and then he called in several times.
“The first one was concerning, and he was irate, but then he called back and issued threats,” Ryan said.
CKHA officials notified Chatham-Kent police about 9:45 a.m., and took measures of their own. Ryan said administration opted to place all CKHA facilities in a partial lockdown, limiting access to the Chatham and Wallaceburg sites to certain entrances.
That went into place about 10:30 a.m.
“The partial lockdown secures all the doors,” Ryan said. “Any unnecessary doors are locked and security is posted at all the doors where the public would be coming in and out of. We can screen people that way.”
At 11:45 a.m. a little over an hour after the lockdown went into effect, police say they made an arrest.
A 47-year-old Highgate man is charged with uttering threats.
Ryan said as soon as hospital officials learned of the arrest, they called off the partial lockdown.
Meanwhile hospitals across southwestern Ontario, from Windsor to Sarnia and including the CKHA, continue to have software and email issues in the wake of a cyber attack earlier in the week.
