Health authority responds to ‘crisis of trust’ in Labrador, says it’s improving patient relations

The provincial health authority says it is engaging Indigenous governments and launching public awareness campaigns to inform patients on how to file complaints against healthcare professionals.

The move by Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services came days after provincial Health Minister Lela Evans publicly declared a “crisis of trust” in reproductive healthcare in Labrador. Evans made the statement during an interview with The Independent for a story about the province’s College of Physicians and Surgeons renewing the medical license of a Happy Valley-Goose Bay obstetrician/gynecologist while actively investigating the doctor following complaints from at least 20 patients.

“What we’ve realized through some of our conversations with our Indigenous partners is that our current patient relations process may not be as culturally safe as we want it to be, because I guess our process really speaks to the client speaking up to their care provider if they have a concern, or going to the manager,” Tina Edmonds, NLHS’s VP Quality and Learning Health Systems (acting), told The Independent in a Dec. 12 interview.

“Due to a lot of reasons—either perceived power imbalance, fear of repercussions, or communication barriers—people might not feel safe to do that. So in that case, the most appropriate first step should probably be direct contact with the patient relations office.”

The health authority hopes that by streamlining complaints through its patient relations office, patients will have better access to medical safety and justice going forward. But NLHS still can’t or won’t say how the current situation got so out of hand.

Asked how a doctor prohibited from practicing in one part of the province—in this case after pleading guilty in provincial court to uttering threats to another physician—can then practice at a hospital in another region, NLHS VP Innovation and Research and Digital Health Ron Johnson told The Independent the health authority follows processes outlined in provincial regulations.

Johnson, who agreed to be interviewed by The Independent on behalf of NL Health Services CEO Pat Parfrey, could not explain why or how a doctor would be allowed to practice in one hospital in the province after being barred from practicing in another.

At the time of Dr. Adolf Hamann’s court appearance in Corner Brook a decade and a half ago, the province had four health authorities. After pleading guilty to uttering threats to another physician, Hamann was barred from practicing at the regional hospital in Corner Brook, which was under the authority of Western Health at the time. Hamann then moved to Labrador where he has continued practicing as an obstetrician/gynecologist with no apparent restrictions on his license.

“There shouldn’t be any difference in the regulations prior to the merger of the health system (in 2023) or after,” Johnson said. “And this specific issue, I mean, I won’t get into that. But right now in Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services, if there’s a licensure issue at any of our facilities, it would carry through,” he explained. “If there’s an issue with practice of any type of professional, we would call that through any of our facilities in the province.”

Allegations erode trust in reproductive healthcare

In a January 2025 investigation, The Independent reported three women in Labrador had come forward with allegations against Hamann, including of a botched surgery on North West River resident Sheila Blake, who was transported to St. John’s after Hamann allegedly perforated her bowel multiple times during an operation to remove an ovarian cyst.

Another woman, Isla Strachan, told The Independent Hamann had left a speculum inside of her following a routine examination in October 2024. Strachan said when she reminded the doctor of the instrument, he abruptly removed it from her body, causing her pain and days of bleeding.

Another woman, Karyn Couperthwaite, an Inuk nurse who works in the same hospital as Hamann, told The Independent of a traumatic experience giving birth years earlier with Hamann as her obstetrician. She alleged Hamann raised his voice at her while arguing about how her baby should be born, and that the doctor physically blocked Couperthwaite’s then husband from entering the room. Couperthwaite also accused Hamann of sterilizing her without her knowledge or consent, leaving her unable to conceive another child.

As more women began speaking out on social media, Strachan circulated a petition and gathered dozens of names of patients interested in filing complaints against Hamann. The College of Physicians and Surgeons told one complainant that of those patients and former patients, 19 women had agreed to be interviewed and the college was in the process of investigating the complaints.

In addition to filing complaints with the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which regulates the practice of medicine in Newfoundland and Labrador and investigates complaints against doctors, Blake and Strachan made formal complaints to the health authority. Last December Hamann’s lawyer, Robin Cook, said his client denied any wrongdoing in those cases. “He explained his version of what occurred,” Cook said. “We’re in the middle of resolving those [complaints], so it wouldn’t be appropriate to talk about those.”

The lawyer also said at the time that Hamann had been asked “to continue [working] because of the shortage of physicians” in the region, and that he had “gone to Columbia, just taking some time off.”

In late August, Hamann returned to work at the Labrador Health Centre, catching some of his patients by surprise, including those awaiting updates on their complaints against him.

“ I’m very, very confused and shocked that he’s allowed back to work without the public knowing what’s going on,” Strachan said in early September.

Cook told The Independent in September that Hamann had returned to work in late August with “no restrictions on his medical license or hospital privileges.”

The ordeal has left an unknown number of women in Labrador uncertain and afraid to seek reproductive healthcare. In September, while still serving in opposition to the Liberal government, Evans said she was “really concerned that what’s not going to be measured is the people who don’t go to their appointments, or don’t have follow-up care because they have fear or distrust of this doctor.”

Now with the authority to demand NLHS investigate the matter, “people have to be held to account,” Evans told The Independent earlier this month. “Why was this allowed to go on for so long?” The minister said “there’s been a failure of Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services to do that.”

In early December, Nunatsiavut Government issued a statement encouraging “anyone with concerns about their care to use the formal complaint process so that issues can be properly investigated and addressed.”

In the Dec. 12 interview with The Independent, Edmonds said NLHS wants to be “as culturally safe as possible in this process and encourage our Indigenous patients to speak up when they have a concern. We want to hear about them, we want to investigate thoroughly and we want to give back to them to improve their experience and outcomes.”

Edmonds also said NLHS is currently working with Nunatsiavut Government on the matter and will be engaging other Indigenous groups in the province.

Two separate processes for complaints: NLHS

Blake, who said earlier this month she still had not heard from the health authority about the outcome of the complaint she filed in November 2024, told The Independent that the thought of running into Hamann after his return to practice “sickens” her. She also said NLHS “needs to be held accountable seeing how they brought him back, knowing full well that he is under investigation” by the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Johnson and Edmonds said the health authority needs patients to file complaints directly to NLHS. “Although the clients have reported to the college, we have no awareness of them really until their findings are published publicly on their website,” Edmonds said, explaining investigations led by the health authority may lead to results being shared with the College of Physicians and Surgeons, but that the college typically doesn’t share details of its investigations with NLHS.

“When complaints come to us, we do our investigation from a patient-relations process. And should those concerns in involve any allegations around physician […] they get brought forward under a formal process set out under Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services medical staff bylaws,” Edmonds explained. “So there is a process then that we follow, and any subsequent processes that involves potential reporting to the college or any other regulatory bodies flows from that.

“Generally we try to respond to an initial intake within three business days, and 28 days for resolution,” Edmonds explained. “Sometimes it may be a bit more complex, it may take longer. We do try to touch base with clients periodically in between, but we know we can do better in that case, and that is something that we’re reviewing now as part of our process to review that policy.”

Responding to the news that NLHS is working to improve patient relations, Couperthwaite says she “happy to see that there is finally something being done about the concerns,” but that she doesn’t know “if there’s necessarily a cultural issue when it comes to putting in complaints.

“I’m glad that’s being looked into, but my main issue is this doctor’s ability to continue working with multiple complaints in against him, his working history, and genuine concerns from females in the area who would be in need of OBGYN services,” she says.

“I myself know I am not comfortable making an appointment knowing it will be him I would see. I would just rather not, and go without,” Couperthwaite continues. “How many others are feeling that way and [are] not comfortable speaking up? 

“NLHS says they cannot do anything if they don’t know about the issues, so I am just wondering when is ‘enough’ for them to do something about it? Women are literally putting their health (and potentially lives) at risk by not making their appointments because it’s with him,” she says. “Something needs to be done.”

Couperthwaite says after learning the health authority had not received as many complaints as the College of Physicians and Surgeons did, she “contacted as many women as I could that I knew had issues previously and asked them all to put their complaints in to NLHS.”

The Independent contacted Hamann through Cook, asking why he returned to practice in Labrador knowing women are concerned about him, whether he is undertaking any training related patient relations or treating Indigenous patients, and whether he feels he is being treated fairly by the health authority or the College of Physicians and Surgeons. The Independent also asked Hamann if there is anything he would like to share with Labradorians about the crisis of trust in reproductive care, or about anything else.

“Dr. Hamann won’t be responding,” Cook said in an email response.