A national shortage of pathologists may be taking a negative toll on Canada's health care system.
There are fears that unless the number of physicians providing laboratory diagnostic services for such diseases as cancer is increased, pathologists will be forced to work longer hours and do more increasingly complex tests.
"The work load continues to increase. All of us are getting older, many of us are getting multiple biopsies done," says Dr. Amin Kabani, the chief medical officer for Diagnostic Services Manitoba.
The increased workload could end up affecting patient care. There are already thousands of cases in Canada of inaccurate diagnoses for cancer patients.
Newfoundland recently concluded public hearings into inaccurate tests done on patients that affected the type of cancer care they received. In some cases, patients did not find out for years their tests had been inaccurate. But the problem isn't limited just to Newfoundland.
Sheilah Roy, a busy mother and RCMP officer in Regina, told Â鶹´«Ã½ about her ordeal after she was misdiagnosed with cancer.
"It was terrible. It was very scary," she said.
"It scared my family. Probably the part that upsets me the most (is) remembering back to how my parents were -- it was just devastating to them."'
Roy underwent surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation -- all in an effort to buy her time with her then-18-month-old son Dayne. But after nearly two years of treatment, she was still alive, and that was unusual for the type of cancer with which she was diagnosed.
When other doctors reviewed her case, they discovered she never had cancer. The pathologist in Winnipeg -- where she lived at the time -- had made an error.
"We can't afford to have more misdiagnoses like this. It destroys peoples' lives. It tears them apart," Roy said.
Years of cancer treatment may have left Roy with lingering health problems. She has now rebuilt her life, but Roy wants to make sure others don't have to go through the same thing.
Roy recommends that other patients like her always get a second opinion. And she notes that she still fears that until the system ensures there are enough pathologists -- and ways of confirming the accuracy of their diagnosis -- inaccurate results will continue to occur.
With a report from CTV's medical correspondent Avis Favaro and senior producer Elizabeth St. Philip
