The office of the Auditor General has released a damning report on the province’s handling of personal care homes, including two incidents in which residents died.
The report notes that eight “serious” incidents were reported to the Department of Health between April 2022 and September 2024, and six of those had no follow-up action documented by the department.
While the report does not specify which incidents required follow up, it does say that two of them involved the death of a resident.
In one instance, someone was “administered multiple medications of another resident,” which resulted in them dying from an accidental overdose.
Another situation involved a resident going for a routine walk. They did not return and were found dead later that day.
The report has also found that NLHS “often” relicensed personal care homes when there were instances of non-compliance with operational standards.
For example, one of the 34 homes sampled had 105 instances of non-compliance, which resulted in them operating with a conditional license for 90 per cent of the audit period.
Issues include allegations of a resident being sexually assaulted by staff, staff being abusive toward residents, medication errors, unsanitary room conditions, mould on windows in resident rooms, and food safety issues.
Elsewhere, the report found that 66 per cent of employees at the homes audited had at least one instance of non-compliance with hiring requirements, including three people – all working in the same home – with negative results on their certificate of conduct, including assault charges.
The AG has made 10 recommendations to both NLHS and the department, all of which have been accepted.
