CARBONEAR, N.L. — A former employee of Eastern Heath has been charged with theft of narcotics, along with charges of fraud and forgery, stemming from a three-month investigation conducted by Harbour Grace RCMP.
Charmaine Hudson, 51, of Salmon Cove was arrested Oct. 10.
On July 9, police received a report from Eastern Health indicating Hudson, a Licensed Practical Nurse, stole narcotics from Carbonear General Hospital and altered hospital records involving those narcotics between September of 2019 to May of this year.
Hudson, who is charged with theft under $5,000, fraud under $5,000, forgery, using a forged document and falsifying documents, is scheduled to appear in Harbour Grace Provincial Court on Dec. 2.
This is not the first time Hudson has faced charges related to a narcotic theft at the Carbonear General Hospital.
In 2016, she entered guilty pleas to theft under $5,000 and falsification of documents, charges that were laid as the result of a police investigation and an internal hospital investigation into the theft of narcotics, namely morphine and hydromorphine.
Hudson, who was given a conditional discharge and 18 months probation at the time, said she had used the thefts to feed an addiction she developed during treatment for kidney stones.
A month after her arrest in that case, Hudson went to a treatment centre in Corner Brook. She’s also sought counselling in Carbonear and had several letters of support filed with the court on her behalf.
Within six months of her arrest, Hudson had resumed work at Carbonear General Hospital. According to the crown prosecutor in 2016, Eastern Health has made changes to address loopholes that enabled her to commit those crimes.
“I took full responsibility for what I did,” Hudson told the courtroom in 2016. “The best thing that could ever happen to me was to get caught.”
