ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Newfoundland's largest health board overlooked dozens of people when it said it had completed a review that found a third of breast cancer patients from 1997 to 2005 were given inaccurate test results, the province's health minister said Friday.
The Eastern Health Authority said last December it had redone the hormone receptor tests of 939 breast cancer patients.
Months later, it was discovered that 317 of those patients were given the wrong results from those tests and missed out on potentially life-saving therapy.
But Health Minister Ross Wiseman said a departmental review has found the actual number of breast cancer patients whose tests were redone is closer to 1,000.
He added it's too early to determine how many more may have missed out on critical treatment.
"It's totally unacceptable,'' Wiseman said during a news conference.
He attributed the missed patients to Eastern Health's poor record-keeping.
"It's disturbing to know that we would have such incomplete information ... when we're managing such sensitive information and such sensitive data.''
Wiseman said he hopes to have precise numbers within weeks.
Eastern Health is currently the subject of a judicial inquiry and a class-action lawsuit over the botched breast cancer tests.
It is also reeling after it was discovered this week that one of its radiologists missed glaring abnormalities such as tumours, broken bones and cases of pneumonia on 708 exams.
