Health authority should have noticed pathologist's problems: college registrar

The Miramichi Regional Health Authority should have been the first to notice problems with the work of former pathologist Dr. Rajgopa Menon, the registrar of the New Brunswick College of Physicians and Surgeons said Monday.

Dr. Ed Schollenberg told the inquiry looking into botched pathology tests that the college received an initial complaint about Menon's work in April 2006 from a family upset about the length of time it was taking to get pathology results for a 79-year-old patient with an aggressive form of melanoma.

The college received a second complaint in August 2006 from a family unhappy with an autopsy report regarding a 66-year-old woman, and a third complaint was registered in February 2007, he said.

Lawyer Rod Gillis, representing Menon, pressed Schollenberg about which body should have been the first to realize there were problems with Menon’s work.

"The hospital should have caught it … much before you?" Gillis asked.

Schollenberg replied: "I just can’t see any way we could have caught it before them.… I will say my answer is they were in the best position to catch it earlier than we would."

Gillis then asked Schollenberg what action was taken after the complaints were made to the college.

Schollenberg replied that no disciplinary action was taken because the incidents were minor in nature and didn't involve misdiagnosis.

Testifying at the inquiry in May, Schollenberg said that the other pathologist at the hospital complained about Menon on Jan. 29, 2007. That complaint indicated the other doctor had found problems with five cases that Menon had worked on.

Those cases were also reviewed and during the process Menon was told several times that if he were to retire the matter would be considered resolved, Schollenberg testified.

Dr. Eshwar Kumar, the co-chief executive officer of the New Brunswick Cancer Network, will testify at the inquiry Tuesday.

Menon, now 73, worked as a pathologist at the Miramichi Regional Health Authority, which operates the Miramichi Regional Hospital,  in northeastern New Brunswick from 1995 until February 2007, when he was suspended following complaints about incomplete diagnoses and delayed lab results.

New Brunswick Health Minister Mike Murphy called the inquiry after an independent audit of 227 cases of breast and prostate cancer biopsies from 2004 to 2005 found 18 per cent had incomplete results and three per cent had been misdiagnosed.