Lawyer asks for patience as N.L. cancer test inquiry begins

Newfoundland and Labrador's judicial inquiry into faulty hormone receptor tests began Wednesday in St. John's with a plea for patience from commission lawyer Bern Coffey.

Over the coming weeks, the commission, headed by Justice Margaret Cameron, will investigate why hundreds of hormone receptor tests for breast cancer patients were done inaccurately.

Coffey cautioned families of cancer patients affected by the scandal to be patient with the information they will hear throughout the inquiry. He said the inquiry is a fact-finding process that will be full of twists and turns and people need to hear all the information before making a judgment.

The inaccurate test results meant some people with breast cancer weren't prescribed the appropriate treatment for their disease.

On Tuesday, Health Minister Ross Wiseman confirmed that 108 of the people whose tests were done inaccurately have died.

Coffey told the commission that cabinet ministers, civil servants, hospital administrators, doctors and nurses would all be questioned about what happened in the eight-year period between 1997 and 2005 that caused the faulty test results at the Eastern Health Authority's pathology lab.

Cameron also addressed the commission Wednesday morning. She said it will be her job to find out what went wrong and how it can be prevented from happening again.

She also cautioned that she will not be looking into personal medical histories of people affected by the faulty test and whether the mistakes hurt them.