N.L. minister concedes he should have acknowledged patients not contacted

Newfoundland and Labrador's health minister expressed regret Friday about wrong information he presented regarding the full scope of mistakes involving breast cancer patients.

Ross Wiseman told the Cameron inquiry that his statements of assurance may have led people who had reason to worry not to do anything about their concerns because they believed they would have been contacted if there was a problem.

Wiseman said that in May 2007, he stood in the House of Assembly and assured people that any breast cancer patients whose tests were being redone were contacted.

"Unfortunately, I took the repeated advice of Eastern Health that — and accepted their commentary that all had been contacted," he said.

But there were patients at the time who said publicly that they hadn't been contacted by Eastern Health Authority.
 
Inquiry lawyer Sandra Chaytor pushed Wiseman on whether he listened to those people and Wiseman acknowledged he should have listened to the public complaints.

"I now recognize that all the people were not contacted … In retrospect today, it would've been much more prudent to have acknowledged much earlier that they hadn't," he said.

The Cameron inquiry is hearing evidence about what went wrong with hormone receptor testing between 1997 and 2005. It's expected to wrap up July 30.