N.L. government thrown into 'disarray' by cancer tests, inquiry told

A former senior civil servant says the Newfoundland and Labrador government was enveloped in confusion in the days following the May 2007 revelations of mishandled breast cancer testing.

John Abbott, who resigned as deputy minister of health within two weeks of the scandal erupting, also told Justice Margaret Cameron's inquiry into flawed hormone receptor testing that he believes he lost his job over the issue.

"For those who may recall, that particular session, it was quite, quite heated," Abbott told the inquiry, describing proceedings in the house of assembly after CBC News had reported on court documents that showed Eastern Health knew the error rate of hundreds of retested breast cancer samples was several times higher than it had said publicly.

"The current and former ministers were being asked questions," Abbott testified Tuesday. "Different ministers were answering questions. The government was seen as in, you know, on this issue, in disarray, and certainly gave that appearance.

"We had — which was [something] I had not really ever seen this before — that we had three ministers up asking questions on health-related [matters]."

Abbott, who has been testifying since last Wednesday at the Cameron inquiry, said he always felt that Eastern Health, the semi-autonomous health authority that manages the St. John's pathology lab, ought to have handled problems with hormone receptor testing on its own.

Eastern Health began retesting samples in 2005, when it discovered that at least one breast cancer patient had been given a false negative report on hormone receptor tests, which are used to determine if a patient can benefit from the potent antihormonal therapy Tamoxifen.

The inquiry has been told that Eastern Health, as the retesting program launched, decided not to inform the public, and hold off on telling patients until it had results. However, the retesting program took months longer than expected, and the inquiry has also been told of Eastern Health's reluctance to share information — including external reviews of the lab — with others.

Caught in crossfire

Abbott said he felt that the Health Department should not have taken a role in the issue.

However, when the issue exploded in the legislature in May 2007, Abbott was caught in the crossfire. He came in for sharp criticism because he had not shared an August 2006 briefing note prepared for Premier Danny Williams with Tom Osborne, the health minister at the time.

Osborne testified last month about the anger he felt when he finally saw that memo in May 2007, during a briefing Abbott and others made to cabinet.

Abbott took responsibility for the mistake.

"From the premier's perspective, and from the minister's perspective, obviously they needed to be kept informed around a sensitive issue," he said.

By the end of that month, Abbott was told by the clerk of executive council, Gary Norris, that Williams wanted a change in the Health Department.

"He felt it was appropriate in that same vein that I also not be no longer associated with this issue in the department. And that was basically how it was presented to me," Abbott testified.

Abbott was offered the job of deputy minister of tourism. He declined it, and instead returned to the private sector, where he resumed a consulting business.

The inquiry is examining what went wrong with hundreds of hormone receptor tests between 1997 and 2005. It so far has focused on how officials dealt with the issue from 2005 to the present.