Managers faced no discipline for renting properties to travel nurses, says NLHS

There has been no disciplinary action for health-care managers who breached the province's Conflict of Interest Act by renting homes to travel nurses and internationally educated nurses under their supervision, CBC News learned Friday. 

In an emailed statement, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services spokesperson Mikaela Etchegary told CBC News the health authority completed a review of leasing contracts during the spring and summer of this year.

"Following this review, in August 2024, several N.L. Health Services employees were informed that their leasing arrangements would be terminated under the Residential Tenancies Act as they were outside of the provincial government's Conflict of Interest Act. As a result of this review and actions taken to terminate the leases, it was determined that no disciplinary action was required," the statement reads. 

That revelation isn't sitting well with the province's nurses' union.

Union president Yvette Coffey says there's a double standard in the decision. 

"If a registered nurse has to go before their licensing body because they've breached their code of ethics and face discipline by the employer, why is there a double standard for a manager, who ought to have known," Coffey said. 

"Why do they get off the hook after benefiting and profiting from the use of private agency nurses in our publicly funded health-care system and everyone else has to face consequences?"

Coffey said the health authority's investigation was like the government investigating itself, and changes the public perception of the service.

When asked in the House of Assembly — and afterward by reporters — if any managers were disciplined for an ethics breach, Health Minister John Hogan, said he didn't know.

Coffey refutes that claim, saying Hogan surely had to have known.

WATCH | Nurses' union, PCs react to health authority's decision:

PC MHA Barry Petten calls the situation a lack of accountability and transparency. He says the health authority's disciplinary decision should have been made public when the leases were terminated in August. 

"I really believe it's fraud," said Petten, referring to the health-care who managers profited from renting homes to travel nurses they supervised.

"There needs to be something done. You can't just ignore this."