Central Health dismisses employee

Central Health terminated the employment of an employee at James Paton Memorial Regional Health Centre last week following an incident involving a newborn child.

Details were scarce as to what may have occurred during the infant's stay at the hospital in Gander.

Rosemarie Goodyear, senior vice-president for quality planning and priorities and also acting CEO for Central Health, said the incident happened on May 11, but could not provide details on whether it was the date of the child's birth.

"We're really not getting into details in terms of the family," she said. "We did have some conversation with the family, and we did assure them that in any media we did, we would be very respectful of the family's privacy."

While she said it is not typically the health authority's practice to comment on issues of a disciplinary nature, Ms. Goodyear did confirm the staff member involved in the issue was put on leave May 11 once its investigation began, and fired the following day.

Ms. Goodyear confirmed tests were

completed prior to the child's release from hospital last week, but could not confirm the specifics of the tests.

"We, in this particular case, would have involved our paediatrician, who would be the clinical expert in the care of an infant," she said, adding the health authority chose to err on the side of safety.

Ms. Goodyear added the health authority has kept the family fully abreast of the situation.

"Our practice is that if an incident comes to our attention and involves a client and the care of the client, we do full disclosure with the client," she said. "We notified the family fairly quickly, and briefed them throughout our investigation."

Meanwhile, the health authority has turned over all relevant information to the RCMP, which is conducting its own investigation.

As of The Beacon's deadline, Sgt. Boyd Merrill said the two major crime officers were trying to determine is the incident was a criminal one.

"We haven't come to any conclusion about whether or not the incident that was reported is either criminal or non-criminal. It's still a fact-finding mission at this point."

He added that if the incident in question had occurred outside of a hospital setting, it may have been deemed "mundane or less-serious than an actual serious offence."

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