ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - A judicial inquiry into hundreds of botched breast-cancer tests in Newfoundland appears to be more of a "prosecution" than an inquiry, Premier Danny Williams said Thursday.
Williams offered the candid comments after emerging from a meeting with oncologists and pathologists to discuss ways of improving their compensation and easing their workloads.
"It was acknowledged by ourselves and by the doctors in the room that the inquisitorial methods that are being used - it appears to be more of a prosecution than an inquiry," Williams said at the legislature late Thursday.
"It's been very, very distressful on everybody's who's been involved in that inquiry at every single level because of the tone, because of the nature."
Williams launched the inquiry last year after it was revealed that more than 300 patients were given inaccurate results on their breast-cancer tests over an eight-year span.
Since the inquiry began hearing testimony in March, witnesses have made embarrassing revelations about repeated communication lapses and failed exercises in damage control.
"It's not intended to be a witch hunt," Williams said. "It's not an attempt to sort of hang somebody out here at the end of the day, because I don't think there's anybody involved in this entire process who wished any harm upon any of the people or any of the patients in this province."
But Williams said while he would like to see the inquiry conclude as soon as possible, he added there was nothing he could do to speed up the process.
"That process has to take its course and Madam Justice Cameron conducts that in a way that she sees fit," said Williams, who has been summoned to testify at a later date.
"I'd just like to see the inquiry move expeditiously, be wrapped up as soon as possible."
Health officials who attended the meeting acknowledged the need to wrestle with uncomfortable questions as the inquiry unfolds, but said some of the testimony has rankled them.
"An inquiry, as such, is not really helping. We are humans as well," said Dr. Nash Denic, the chief of laboratory medicine for the health board under scrutiny at the inquiry.
"The way the inquiry's been conducted is not something that anybody was expecting."
Dr. Kara Laing, the clinical chief of oncology for the Eastern Health authority, agreed.
"We know that we're in for a little bit of a long road ahead of us," Laing said.
"Most of us physicians have not had an opportunity to get up and speak and tell our side of the story, and we're very much looking forward to being able to do that."
The inquiry is trying to determine how nearly 400 patients received erroneous results on their breast-cancer tests, and whether Eastern Health or any other responsible authorities responded to patients and the public in an appropriate and timely manner.
The inquiry is focusing on hormone-receptor tests, which are used by doctors to determine the course of treatment for breast-cancer patients.
If patients are found to be estrogen-and/or progesterone-positive, they may respond to hormone therapy such as Tamoxifen. If not, they may be given a range of other treatments, or no treatment at all, depending on the characteristics of the patient's cancer.
In the spring of 2005, doctors began questioning the hormone-receptor test results of a patient with invasive lobular carcinoma, a form of breast cancer.
After retesting, it was discovered that the initial test result was wrong, as were those for a small sample of other patients.
Eastern Health subsequently halted testing in its lab and transferred its hormone-receptor tests to Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.
The health board then started a review of all hormone-receptor tests from 1997 to 2005.
