Pathologist's work a concern since 2005
The Miramichi Regional Hospital started and then stopped an investigation into a pathologist's work several months before the College of Physicians and Surgeons learned there was a problem, the college registrar said.
"I have a sense it was looked at along the way, and I don't know exactly when, but decisions were made not to go any further," Dr. Ed Schollenberg told CBC News on Wednesday.
Schollenberg's comments come amid accusations from New Brunswick Health Minister Mike Murphy that the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick responded too slowly to complaints about a pathologist who allegedly misdiagnosed several illnesses over a 12-year period in the Miramichi Regional Health Authority.
"It's very difficult to speculate about whether anybody has lost their life, but it would not be unlikely," Murphy said on Monday. "It's extremely serious. This is something that's outrageous."
Authorities to review thousands of biopsies
As many as 15,000 biopsies need to be audited, health authorities said, after an independent review of 227 cases from 2004-2005 found that 18 per cent of the cases had incomplete results and three per cent were misdiagnosed.
That audit will look at tests done on patients at Miramichi Regional Hospital between 1995 and 2007. It will also re-examine about 100 cases conducted for the Regional Health Authority 4 in Edmundston in 2002.
Neither Murphy nor health authority officials named the former pathologist, but it is likely they were referring to Dr. Rajgopal Menon, a pathologist at the Miramichi Regional Health Authority during the period in question.
Menon, 73, was suspended on Feb. 6, 2007, by the college, the governing body for doctors in the province, after complaints of incomplete diagnoses and delayed lab results.
Murphy said the doctor he was referring to was suspended just over a year ago, and health officials confirmed that only one pathologist was suspended in February 2007.
Advisory committee notified in 2005
The health authority's medical advisory committee was notified of five complaints against Menon in the spring of 2005. But it was not until another doctor at the hospital filed a complaint in January 2007 that the college took action.
The college had suggested in 2006 that the hospital look at Menon's record after it received two complaints about his work, including one from a man whose prostate cancer went undetected for three years.
After Menon's licence was suspended, a closer examination of his work was ordered. An independent review in December 2007 and January 2008 detected approximately 7 to 10 misdiagnoses among 227 cases.
Menon appealed his suspension in May 2007, arguing he was not given proper notice and had no chance to defend himself. He is currently suing the regional health authority regarding his dismissal. He is alleging administrators conspired to ruin his medical career.
Menon told CBC News he has been advised not to comment.
Several court documents related to his appeal, including a peer review of Menon's work, have been sealed and are under a publication ban.
The government will appoint a judge to review all the circumstances of the case and to present recommendations on how to avoid a reoccurrence, Murphy said.
The Health Department will also be asking the college to review the process under which it carries out disciplinary action against physicians, he said.
"It is our desire to see these changes implemented within six months in order to achieve what I believe must be radical change in the disciplinary process. If this does not happen, then government will take the necessary steps to ensure this is done," Murphy said.
Patients should have been informed: cancer society
The RCMP has also been asked to investigate any possible criminal negligence, the minister said.
The Canadian Cancer Society is concerned about how patients have been advised of the situation, said Anne McTiernan-Gamble, executive director of the New Brunswick division.
"We think it's very distressing that that this physician of concern has been let go a year ago — his licence was removed from the College of Physicians and Surgeons — and yet no patients have been notified," McTiernan said. "A year is a long time in a case of cancer, and time is of the essence in terms of treatment and outcome."