The Royal Victoria Hospital is shown in Montreal, Friday, April 15, 2011.
Montreal police are looking for a woman who allegedly posed as a doctor and gave a hospitalized patient a fake brain-cancer diagnosis.
A director for two affiliated Montreal hospitals said the suspect spoke with one patient at each institution on Monday.
Ann Lynch said no patients were harmed by the woman, who posed as a physician in the emergency rooms at the Royal Victoria Hospital and Montreal General Hospital.
This type of security breach is believed to be a first for the hospitals.
"Safety is really important to us here at the hospital and so we're extremely concerned about it," Ms. Lynch, an associate director general for the McGill University Health Centre, told reporters Friday.
"I think this is a situation that can happen in any public institution - it's a wake-up call, I think, to all public institutions to really look at the issues of security."
Ms. Lynch declined to give many details about the indicents, saying the matter is now in the hands of Montreal police investigators.
She would not deny a report by news outlet Rue Frontenac that said the woman gave a phoney diagnosis of brain cancer to a patient.
The report said the patient panicked after hearing the diagnosis, which attracted the attention of emergency room staff and security.
But the woman left the hospital before police were called.
Montreal police say they didn't get a call until the next day, a department spokesman said.
Const. Simon Delorme said the woman visited the first hospital and gave a diagnosis that didn't have anything to do with why that patient was there.
An hour later, she did almost the same thing at the second hospital.
"They found it a little bit bizarre," said Const. Delorme, adding he didn't know exactly what the suspect said to the patients.
"She wasn't a doctor, she just made up a story that she was a doctor."
Const. Delorme said it's still too early for police to provide a description of the woman.
The hospitals, both of which are part of the McGill University Health Centre, are reviewing their own security measures, which include identification checks.
"We are taking this situation very, very seriously," Ms. Lynch said.
"We're trying to understand how this could have occurred and what other measures may need to be put in place."