Told not to question Eastern Health cancer figures, inquiry told

A senior official  in Newfoundland and Labrador's health department has told a judicial inquiry she was told not to question confusing figures about controversial cancer tests.

Moira Hennessey, an assistant deputy minister responsible for regional health board services, also told the Cameron inquiry Tuesday that she forgot to relay information on cancer testing problems to her superiors.

As well, Hennessey told Justice Margaret Cameron that she altered a ministerial briefing note on a deputy minister's instructions.

Hennessey, who helped write some of the key briefing notes presented to government officials on Eastern Health's retests of hundreds of hormone-receptor samples, told the inquiry she had trouble making sense of inconsistent data coming from the authority during 2006.

She said she spoke with John Abbott, the deputy minister of health at the time, about the issue.

"The response that I got was to accept the numbers that Eastern Health was providing. So, I made a decision to accept the ones that were in the written material," Hennessey said.

A key issue at the Cameron inquiry has been the confusion among government officials about the extent of hormone-receptor testing problems, in part because of documentation that had differing if not contradictory information.

Hennessey told the inquiry that she could recall very little about her discussions with others at the time, including why she did not act on correcting information that was inaccurate.

In one case, she testified, a briefing note had been altered.

Word in briefing note 'slashed'

The final briefing note said that the recommendations to fix the pathology lab had been implemented. Her actual note had only said that the recommendations were being acted upon.

"The note came back  I can still see it, actually. The note came back to me with the words crossed, like slashed, through it," she said.

Hennessey told the inquiry that Abbott directed her to make the wording change. She said she did not challenge Abbott, and did not tell Tom Osborne, the minister of health at the time, that he was getting inaccurate information.

"Regrettably, that was an error in judgment on my part," Hennessey said.

Williams angry over memo distribution lapse

Hennessey helped draft an August 2006 briefing note for Premier Danny Williams, although the inquiry has already been told that the note did not also go to Osborne.

Hennessey told the inquiry that Williams was furious when that mistake was uncovered at a May 2007 cabinet meeting.

She said later that day, she and Abbott were called on the carpet.

"Was the premier upset by this?" inquiry co-counsel Sandra Chaytor asked.

"The premier wasn't pleased," Hennessey responded.

Moreover, it emerged that Hennessey had also not shared the final version of the note — which included data that showed that more than 300 breast cancer patients had been given erroneous testing results — with Abbott.

"Did you acknowledge that you had not shared the final version with Mr. Abbott?" Chaytor asked.

"I don't recall having that discussion with Mr. Abbott. When we met with the premier, Mr. Abbott did the talking with the premier," Hennessey said.