Lawyer asks for more funding for Miramichi pathology inquiry

A lawyer representing some of the patients at the commission into pathology services at Miramichi Regional Health Authority is asking for funding from the government.

Paul Creaghan, the judge in charge of the inquiry, met with the lawyers representing the Miramichi Regional Health Authority, the Health Department, New Brunswick's College of Physicians and Surgeons and affected patients on Monday.

Lawyer George McAllister told CBC News he needs funding from the government to be able to adequately tell the stories of affected patients.

"We've got people … who went to the hospital, they got negative findings on their pathology tests, … went back to their doctors. Nobody treated them because the tests were negative," McAllister said. "They got sick and they died of cancer. Who is going to tell [those] stories?"

McAllister would not tell reporters how much funding he is asking the government for but said the request is already being reviewed.

"We have now applied to the provincial government … they're considering our application for funding but in order to level the playing field to engage the people on the Miramichi we need funding if their voice is going to be heard here before the commission," McAllister said.

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

More than 23,700 patient cases from the Miramichi hospital in eastern New Brunswick from 1995 to 2007 are now being reviewed by the province. The audit of the biopsies will also include about 100 carried out at the Regional Health Authority 4 in Edmundston in 2002.

The inquiry is scheduled to begin at the University of Moncton in May and will continue until the fall.

Dr. Rajgopal Menon, 73, worked as a pathologist at the Miramichi Regional Health Authority from 1995 until February 2007, when he was suspended following complaints about incomplete diagnoses and delayed lab results.

A peer review of Menon's work, released publicly in March, indicated the pathologist had serious medical problems that could have affected the accuracy of his work, including tremors in his hands and cataracts.

The RCMP are also conducting an investigation and the public inquiry will also examine how the local medical advisory committee and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick dealt with complaints against the doctor that dated back to 1998.

It is important that the inquiry get to the bottom of what happened, said Marc-Antoine Chiasson, lead counsel for the inquiry.

"This is not just about one individual," Chiasson said. "It's about a system, about a hospital, about the Department of Health, who was responsible for what, who should have acted, when they should have acted and so on, so forth."