Pathologist asked to retire after complaints filed about his work

The Miramichi pathologist whose work is the subject of a public inquiry was told several times that complaints about his work would be considered resolved if he were to retire.

New Brunswick College of Physicians and Surgeons registrar Dr. Ed Schollenberg told the public commission on Thursday that the college dealt with its first complaint about Dr. Rajgopal Menon in 2006.

The commission is examining the high rate of breast and prostate cancer misdiagnoses at the Miramichi Regional Health Authority in northeastern New Brunswick. Menon, now 73, worked as a pathologist at the Miramichi hospital from 1995 until he was suspended in February 2007.

Schollenberg testified that the provincial licensing body received its first complaint against Menon 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.

Menon was informed about the initial complaint but didn't seem to care, Schollenberg said.

"The response was that this wasn't an important issue and that was troubling to me," Schollenberg said. "It was like this didn't really matter and that was troubling."

Called by Health Minister Mike Murphy after an independent audit of 227 cases of breast and prostate cancer biopsies from 2004-05 found 18 per cent had incomplete results and three per cent had been misdiagnosed, the public commission has heard that Menon had a history of slow test turn around times, missing lab slides and absenteeism.

A second complaint regarding Menon was received in August 2006 from a family unhappy with an autopsy report regarding a 66-year-old woman, Schollenberg said.

Both cases were reviewed but were not related to misdiagnoses, Schollenberg said.

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

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 said.

"We're ultimately trying to get physicians to do the right thing and stop doing the wrong thing and if a physician retires they stop doing the wrong thing and from that point of view we would have fulfilled our mandate if we could have pushed that in that direction," Schollenberg said.

Menon, however, refused and argued that his retirement wasn't relevant to the cases that were being reviewed.

Menon has been attending the public commission but has declined to comment to the media. He is expected to take the stand on May 28.

A lab in Ottawa is currently reviewing more than 23,700 cases from the hospital dating from 1995 to 2007. The audit of the biopsies will also include about 100 carried out at the Regional Health Authority 4 in Edmundston in 2002, when Menon also worked there.

The inquiry will not assign civil or criminal responsibility to any person or organization.

Currently hearing testimony at the University of Moncton, the commission led by former judge Paul Creaghan will go in June to Miramichi, where any of the 227 patients affected by the initial review can testify.

It will then return to Moncton for a final four weeks of hearings in September.

By Jan. 1, 2009,  Creaghan is to make recommendations to the government on how to prevent an excessive level of misdiagnoses from happening again.