The CEO of Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services blames the COVID pandemic for not having background checks completed on long-term care staff working in the public system.
Auditor General Denise Hanrahan found that 27 criminal checks, and 39 vulnerable sector checks were missing from available files during a recent audit of government-run long-term care facilities.
In some cases, several employees were working for more than a year before those checks were completed.
The AG’s findings on missing or outdated vulnerable sector checks in long-term care homes (Office of the Auditor General)
The AG report, released yesterday, covered the period from 2024 to 2026.
Ron Johnson says the agency they use had placed a moratorium on background checks during the pandemic.
“Certain times, like during COVID, like the agencies that do these type of criminal conduct reports had moratoriums on them or had such a backlog that we couldn’t get them. So there’s a mixture of reasons,” says Johnson.
CEO of the NLHS Ron Johnson (VOCM News)
Senior Director of Long Term Care Melvin Layden says the health authority had to weigh whether to leave facilities short staffed – or hire someone without a criminal record check.
“In some of those periods, we had the way of being able to hire staff or put a freeze on hiring staff because there has been no code of conduct available.”
“But there is a robust system today to ensure that these metrics are met and our line for care managers are following up to ensure that this is completed.”
