Will meet deadline on radiology review: authority

A flat-out review of radiology reports involving thousands of southern Newfoundland patients will be completed by a deadline imposed by government, an executive says.

"Right now, it's been getting the logistics in place, getting the radiologists in place, get the reading going and set ourselves targets for every single day, to try and get this done as quickly as possible," said Oscar Howell, a vice-president of the Eastern Health regional authority.

Eastern Health was told last Friday to complete a review of radiology reports— involving X-rays, CT scans and ultrasounds, but not mammograms— within two weeks.

The authority originally said it would need five weeks to review the records of a radiologist who was suspended on May 10, after a preliminary review raised questions about the quality of his work.

Health Minister Ross Wiseman insisted on a faster review to minimize patient anxiety.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association said Tuesday that the deadline is far too short and that quality may be affected. The NLMA said it spoke out after being contacted by some of the 22 radiologists who had been asked to do the review on top of their regular workloads.

Howell said he would like the target of completing the work by June 8 to be met.

"These are professionals and they will, particularly the leaders, will keep me apprised of that, and if there's absolutely any indication that due to fatigue or whatever that we can't handle this case, then we will look for additional resources in order to get this done," he said.

"The radiologists have been excellent about that," Howell told CBC News.

"They're stepping up to it but we will be keeping our eye on that quality and look to them if there's any hint that they're struggling with this pace."

When Eastern Health announced the review, it said about 6,000 records, involving about 3,500 patients, would need to be reviewed. Earlier this week, the estimate of records was revised to about 5,100.

It now sits at 4,600.

Howell said about 1,000 records have been reviewed. Howell said Eastern Health is not prepared to release any findings on accuracy.

One of the issues in the review is that not all of the diagnostic images can be transmitted electronically, meaning that some physicians are manually reading film records.

Lorraine Michael, leader of the provincial New Democratic party, said she is worried about the pace of the review, and is concerned about patients who may have to wait longer for results of new tests because radiologists are dealing with a backlog.

"There are backups for sometimes weeks for people waiting for their CAT scan reports," Michael said.

"My understanding is that it's not necessarily because there's not enough radiologists— sometimes there are not enough people in the rest of the system doing the other pieces of work that have to be done."

Letters have not yet been issued to patients whose records are being reviewed.