Ontario MD claims Manitoba recruiters misrepresented Carberry hospital job

An Ontario doctor recruited to work in a rural Manitoba hospital claims in a lawsuit he was misled about the position by recruiters who failed to disclose they were getting paid to find physicians to work at the facility.

Dr. Klevis Iliriani, who worked at the hospital in Carberry between May and August 2024, filed a statement of claim in Court of King’s Bench last week. Iliriani, who resides in Ottawa suburb Stittsville, alleges the recruiters negligently misrepresented the job at the Carberry Plains Health Centre and breached the terms of his contract, resulting in him getting less pay than promised.

The lawsuit names the recruiters — Dr. Dave Maharajh and Barry Banek — the provincial government, Prairie Mountain Health Region, the health centre, the Rural Municipality of North Cypress-Langford, the Town of Carberry and several other unnamed people as defendants. None have responded to the claim in court.

Officials from local governments in western Manitoba and the Prairie Mountain Health Region have made significant efforts in recent years to encourage doctors from other countries and elsewhere in Canada, as well as medical students, to take up practice in communities in the region, where physicians are in short supply.

In March 2024, Iliriani was working at a hospital in Notre Dame de Lourdes, also in southern Manitoba, where he was providing care in various departments as a locum tenens, a temporary position used to fill staffing gaps.

He claims he was contacted by Banek about another locum opportunity at the hospital in Carberry that same month. The court filing claims Banek told Iliriani that Maharajh was working on reviving the Carberry hospital’s emergency room and passed along contact information.

Iliriani told the two recruiters that he wouldn’t leave his position in Notre Dame de Lourdes unless he had similar duties and got comparable pay and travel expenses at the Carberry hospital, his court papers claim.

Maharajh told Iliriani that he working closely with the provincial government and that he was authorized to negotiate terms of employment on behalf of Prairie Mountain Health, the court filing claims, but the recruiters never explicitly revealed they were making money to recruit doctors.

“At no time during the recruitment process did the recruiting defendants advise Dr. Iliriani that they held any direct financial interest in Dr. Iliriani working at the Carberry hospital, nor did they disclose that they would receive any financial compensation for the recruitment of doctors to the Carberry hospital,” reads the court filing.

“Dr. Iliriani later discovered that the recruiting defendants were paid by the (health authority) defendants, or one or more of them, for the recruitment of doctors to the Carberry hospital.”

The recruiters told Iliriani that the Carberry job would be similar to his role in Notre Dame de Lourdes, but he would have a more central role, a more flexible schedule and get more money to travel to the hospital from Ontario, his court filing claims.

Iliriani took the Carberry job based on what the recruiters told him, his court papers say, but when he began working, his duties were “fundamentally different” than what he had been promised during the recruitment process.

The reduced workload amounted to less pay than what he was told he would make during the recruitment process, and he also did not get his travel compensation, the claim alleges.

He worked for a time but ultimately resigned from the Carberry hospital in August 2024.

He alleges the recruiters breached the terms of his contract when they gave him misleading or inaccurate information and altered the contract’s terms.

Iliriani claims he’s suffered losses or damages as a result and that he lost income by leaving one job for the other. He alleges the defendants’ actions also harmed his professional reputation.

The doctor is asking the court for various damages, but no dollar amount is specified in the court papers.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca