Media take drubbing at cancer inquiry symposium

Front-line workers with the health authority at the centre of Newfoundland and Labrador's cancer inquiry say unbalanced media coverage is feeding public anxiety.

That in turn, they say, means they are feeling the fallout from the scandal.

The Cameron inquiry on flawed breast cancer tests switched gears this week, and moved its focus to Memorial University, where a two-day symposium with outside experts looked at such issues as ethics, disclosure and accountability.

On Wednesday, participants looked at the role of the media in public disclosure, and how Eastern Health handled informing hundreds of people about mistakes that may have affected their cancer treatment.

Pam Elliott, who handles patient queries at Eastern Health, told the symposium she fields many more calls now than before. She blamed the media for negative stories that she says overshadow the good work done at Eastern Health.

"Patients are very confused. They're very frightened," Elliott said.

"We're having people call in who don't even have cancer — it's been ruled out — and they're saying, 'Does this mean I have my cancer?'"

Pat Pilgrim, one of Eastern Health's chief operating officers, said open-line radio shows aren't helping, either.

"We have — not only one, not only two, but three — so we have about, I don't know, nine or 10 hours of open-line shows that play every day on one of our radio stations," Pilgrim said.

Health authority must communicate better, says prof

But Stephen Ward, a journalism professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, told participants that Eastern Health cannot blame reporters, but rather must do a better job communicating with the public.

"When you tell me that some people are confused about whether their test — or whether they have cancer and all that — it seems that that's not just the responsibility of the media," Ward said.

"Shouldn't the health organization have a whole information sector dealing with that, with those types of queries — or getting it more out in the public domain?"

Ward, while he was the Canadian Press correspondent in St. John's, covered the Hughes inquiry, which was struck in 1989 to investigate sexual abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage as well as how the criminal justice system mishandled the case in the 1970s.

He said he learned from that experience that reforming institutions by shining a bright light on them may create anxiety, but it's worth it if it forces change to make sure mistakes do not happen again.

Justice Margaret Cameron began hearing evidence in March related to what went wrong at a St. John's lab that produced hundreds of flawed hormone receptor tests, which are used to help determine treatment for breast cancer patients, between 1997 and 2005.

George Tilley, the former chief executive officer of Eastern Health, is expected to continue testimony Thursday.