Williams viewed cancer test note merely as 'update'

A briefing note sent to Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams in August 2006 laid out important details about flawed breast cancer testing, although he may not have been aware of its importance.

The memo showed that the status of more than 300 patients had changed in a sweeping retesting process. Of those, treatment recommendations had changed for 109 patients, who had suffered delays in being considered for the potent antihormonal therapy Tamoxifen.

The briefing note was entered as an exhibit this week at a judicial inquiry examining what went wrong at a St. John's pathology lab, and how officials responded once the problems were discovered.

In the legislature on Wednesday, Williams said he viewed the memo as an "update" and thought it did not contain much new information, and as such did not consult it again.

In fact, the details in the memo lay out a picture of erroneous testing results similar to what was contained in an affidavit filed the next winter in response to a class action lawsuit application in Newfoundland Supreme Court.

Several days after CBC News reported in May 2007 the contents of those court documents — which showed the error rate of retested samples was 42 per cent, or several times higher than what Eastern Health officials revealed in a December 2006 media briefing — Williams called a public inquiry.

Declined to comment

Participating in an event in Toronto on Thursday evening, Williams declined to comment on the revelations in the August 2006 briefing note.

Outside the house on Wednesday, he said, "Ultimately, I have to rely on my ministers. I just don't have the time or the staff or the people with the capability to drill down into every issue to [a] minute level in every department."

Williams in the legislature focused on the summary of the briefing note, which said 22 patients were "greatly impacted."

But former health minister Tom Osborne told the inquiry earlier this week that he was never shown the data in the August 2006 briefing note — at least while he had the health portfolio.

Osborne first saw the memo in May 2007, when — as justice minister — he and other cabinet ministers were responding to revelations about the errors with hormone receptor testing.

Osborne testified that if he had been equipped with that information at the time, he may have been able to pressure Eastern Health to go public with the information in late 2006.

On Thursday, Health Minister Ross Wiseman testified at the inquiry that he was told Eastern Health withheld such details in December 2006 because of legal advice it had received.

Only recently read external reports: health minister

Meanwhile, Wiseman also testified that he had only recently read reports on the Eastern Health lab written by two external experts.

Eastern Health recruited British Columbia pathologist Dr. Diponkar Banerjee and Mount Sinai Hospital technologist Trish Wegrynowski in 2005 to review the pathology lab.

"I have since read the reports. Several times," Wiseman told inquiry co-counsel Sandra Chaytor.

"This is a process we're going through here to learn something and from the conversations we had the last time and the way you framed your questions, you know, piqued my curiosity."

Wiseman had also testified Thursday he did not read extensive briefing notes on the breast cancer issue for several months.

Those reports pointed to myriad problems within the lab, including high turnover and poor training, as contributing to the errors. The external reviews rejected "systems error," or faulty equipment, which Osborne and others were repeatedly told was the key reason for the problem.