Newfoundland radiologist suspended after botched breast cancer tests
A Newfoundland health authority announced the suspension of a radiologist under review for his handling of patients much earlier than it planned to because of “heightened sensitivity” over a separate case of botched breast cancer tests, the authority’s CEO said Wednesday.
The Eastern Health Authority has been reeling in recent days from two cases that, while unrelated, have called into question its willingness to release information to the public over questionable tests.
The authority suspended a radiologist at the Burin Peninsula Health Centre on May 10 after staff at the facility raised concerns three months earlier over his procedures and decision-making. The authority is now reviewing 6,000 reports the radiologist conducted on 3,500 patients going back to his hiring in November.
But Eastern Health didn’t announce that until Tuesday, nearly two weeks after the suspension.
Eastern Health CEO George Tilley said he decided to go public about the radiologist’s suspension because of sensitivity surrounding the organization’s flow of information in wake of a breast cancer testing scandal.
“If there were no issues on (estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor testing), I think what I would’ve done is probably waited until the end of this week until I had the full, peer assessment completed,” Tilley said in an interview.
“So it would’ve been an issue that we would certainly have been talking about next week.”
Tilley declined to confirm the identity of the radiologist.
“I’ve got to make sure that I’m not inappropriately taking what could be considered some very significant action against a professional without justification,” he said.
Only two radiologists work at the Burin Peninsula Health Centre, according to the Newfoundland and Labrador College of Physicians and Surgeons.
“I suspect that there only being two, and now one only there, that pretty quickly the people in the area would know who we’re referring to,” Tilley said.
Patients of the hospital are now wondering whether anything is wrong with their various diagnostic tests.
“Should I be concerned? I really don’t know, but it clearly causes a lot of extra stress on everyone who have had tests done in the past six months,” said Burin Mayor Kevin Lundrigan, who has had an X-ray and CT scan done at the hospital.
“Coming on the heels of the reports . . . last week, it certainly calls into question whether the proper checks and balances are in place at Eastern Health.”
Tilley said he appreciates that those patients would be worried. “We understand why they would be concerned about it.”
Last week, affidavits as part of a class-action lawsuit against Eastern Health found that more than 300 patients were given the wrong results on their breast cancer hormone receptor tests.
At least 36 patients in Newfoundland and Labrador who received the wrong test results have died, though it remains unknown how many died as a result of their cancer.
A lawyer representing patients behind the class-action argued Wednesday that a lack of quality controls, among other things, plagued Eastern Health.
On the opening day of a three-day hearing to certify the lawsuit, Ches Crosbie said Eastern Health failed to properly supervise and train staff, as well as inform patients in a timely manner of inaccurate breast cancer test results.
The allegations in their statement of claim have not been proven in court.
The provincial government has announced a judicial inquiry to determine how so many patients could have received the wrong results.
source : thechronicleherald.ca
