Audit flags reports of abuse, missing patients in N.L. long-term care
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ST. JOHN’S – Newfoundland and Labrador’s auditor general is calling for more accountability in the province’s system of long-term care homes after documenting a series of alleged deficiencies, including reports of abuse, medication errors and missing residents.
In an audit released Thursday, Denise Hanrahan’s office says facilities received complaints of unexplained bruising and aggression between residents, including a reported incident of strangulation.
Newfoundland and Labrador is home to the most rapidly aging population in Canada, and people aged 65 or older could make up more than 30 per cent of the province’s population by 2043, Hanrahan noted. She said it was critical for the government and the health authority to ensure residents of long-term care homes are safe and well cared for.
“Overall, there is a lack of accountability within the long-term care system, including weaknesses in governance, oversight, monitoring and operational practices,” her report said.
“This increases the risk that vulnerable residents are not receiving safe, high-quality care that they deserve.”
Hanrahan and her team analyzed 39 of 43 long-term care facilities in the province, all but one of which were owned and operated by Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services. Her team also visited 15 care homes in the audit period, which ran from April 2024 to March 2026.
In some cases, they found holes in flooring, exposed heating equipment and tripping hazards, the report said. The document also flagged concerns with food safety and staffing levels.
They found no records of criminal background checks among hiring documents for nearly a fifth of 150 employees analyzed. More than a quarter were missing vulnerable sector checks, Hanrahan said.
Citing patient safety legislation, the provincial health authority would not share details with the auditors about more than 21,000 occurrence reports, which are filed when “an undesired or unplanned event” could have or did cause harm to a patient, the report said. However, the authority provided a summary, showing that at least 16 per cent of those — more than 3,400 — resulted in temporary harm to a resident.
The team did manage to see reports of 37 incidents which included verbal abuse by staff, resident abuse, medication errors and missing patients, the report said.
Hanrahan’s team did not have enough information to determine whether officials reported any incidents to the police, if such reporting was warranted, she told reporters on Thursday.
Her team’s report also chided the health authority’s handling of wait-lists, saying that as of March, there were 730 people waiting for spots in a province with roughly 3,200 beds.
The audit report says the government spent about $482 million on long-term care in the 2025-26 fiscal year, which works out to about $151,000 per publicly funded bed.
The audit came with 22 recommendations for the province and the health authority, including that Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services ensure all long-term care staff meet hiring requirements.
Though the report details flaws, Hanrahan told reporters her team also found “good people doing good work” in the province’s long-term care system.
“There are a lot of good things also happening, but you need to have the specifics to fix the things that aren’t (working),” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2026.
