Wanted to disclose testing problems at start: former Eastern Health boss

The former head of Eastern Health wanted to go public right away about problems with breast cancer testing, but was advised not to do so by oncologists and his communications director.

"It really presented a dilemma," George Tilley, who resigned as chief executive officer of Eastern Health last July, told Justice Margaret Cameron on Tuesday.

Tilley said oncologists advised him in July 2005 that disclosing problems about hormone receptor testing would cause undue stress and anxiety to patients already trying to survive cancer.

Tilley told the judicial inquiry, which is examining what went wrong at Newfoundland and Labrador's key pathology lab over an eight-year period, that his communications director, Susan Bonnell, did not want to issue a news release, but instead wanted to contact patients directly.

Oncologists, though, wanted to hold off on even that disclosure until they had the results of retests.

Tilley indicated he found their arguments persuasive.

"The people who are dealing with patients who are fighting cancer obviously were in a position to be able to know how much it's affected those patients," Tilley testified.

"I remembered saying, or having to say, our patient has to be the focus here, and not ourselves."

The internal disagreement was mirrored when John Ottenheimer, the provincial health minister at the time, was notified.

Ottenheimer has testified that he, too, wanted to make an immediate public disclosure on the issue, but was persuaded by "professional medical advice" to not disclose until retests were done.

Eastern Health took quick action to remedy problems in its pathology lab. Hormone receptor testing — which is used to determine if a patient would benefit from antihormonal therapy, like Tamoxifen — was halted, and samples were shipped to Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto for retesting.

Tilley confirmed what exhibits already presented into evidence have shown: the retesting process turned out to be much slower than anticipated.

The public first learned of problems in early October 2005, through a news article in the weekly St. John's newspaper, the Independent.

"It wasn't unanticipated, but it was certainly disappointing that we hadn't been able to get the results back by that point in time," Tilley said.

Inquiry won't meet deadline

Meanwhile, CBC News has learned that Justice Margaret Cameron's inquiry will not meet the target deadline of July 30, which was established last year.

Cameron has written to Justice Minister Jerome Kennedy about the delay.

The inquiry's start was delayed for about two months, because Eastern Health went to Newfoundland Supreme Court in a failed bid to prevent public release of reports by two external experts, who found that operational problems — not equipment — had been plaguing the pathology lab.

As well, four days of testimony were scrubbed earlier this month when the provincial government found about 40 e-mails and documents that had been missed during an original search for evidence.

The interviewing of some witnesses is also taking longer than scheduled.

Cameron has not set a new date for her final report.