N.L. minister blasts new revelations on breast cancer testing

Newfoundland and Labrador's health minister has taken aim at shoddy record-keeping involving an already controversial series of tests of breast cancer patients.

Officials still don't have a complete array of information involving hormone receptor tests that were sent out of the province for retesting, Ross Wiseman revealed Friday, and some additional patients may have received wrong or incomplete results, or none at all.

"It's totally unacceptable," Wiseman told reporters Friday.

"Managing patient information is critical in providing quality patient care."

A judicial inquiry has already been called to analyze the faults in hormone receptor tests done at an Eastern Health laboratory in St. John's.

The tests are used to determine whether a breast cancer patient is a candidate for the antihormonal drugTamoxifen, which has been clinically shown to boost survival rates.

Opposition Liberal critic Yvonne Jones said the latest news — including a revelation that the government is not even sure how many patients were retested in the first place — hurts public confidence in the health care system.

"This is a life and death situation," Jones said.

"I don't know how it could be as carelessly handled as it has been."

On Friday, Wiseman said the total number of patient samples that should have been retested is now higher than what has been made public. Last year, Eastern Health said Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto had retested 939 patients' samples taken over an eight-year period.

Of the missed tests, more than a dozen have been redone, and dozens more will have to be revisited, Wiseman said.

The health impact has been mitigated by the fact that 10 of the women whose tests had been missed — and who had falsely been given negative test results — had doctors who put them put on Tamoxifen anyway.

The ongoing review, though, has also found that some patients who were retested may not have been contacted.

Wiseman said the latest revelations have exposed a troubling problem with how Eastern Health, the province's largest health authority, manages patient information.

For instance, at least six patients and their doctors were not informed of their results.

The revelations are the latest blow against the credibility of Eastern Health, which has been under fire for its handling of the hormone receptor issue.

This spring, documents registered with a class action lawsuit at Newfoundland Supreme Court showed officials knew the error rate of the lab tests was several times high than had been publicly disclosed.

Louise Jones, Eastern Health's interim president and chief executive officer, issued a statement saying the authority's "primary focus is on ensuring that any individuals who need to be notified as a result of the database will be notified."