[The many days of testimony] "conclude an examination that has revealed serious issues within the health-care system, including the often-neglected field of pathology, ethical issues of patient notification and how well staff are trained for their jobs".A focus of the inquiry has also been how agile the health-care system is in responding to reports of problems.
Smith said the experience of the inquiry has already led to substantial changes in quality assurance, but said there are still risks if staff do not step up and file reports.
"I think we've made major efforts to try to educate people about what an occurrence report is, why it's used, how it can improve patient care and safety, but some people just don't use those report forms," Smith said." (CBC News October 31, 2008).
The other big story along with all the issues of withholding information is the loss of one of the computers used in the diagnostic testing. Apparently after the computers are deemed too old, they are put in a landfill. But the records are not wiped clean from the system. An older news story mentioned that these computers were in a dump in St. John's but it turns out a technician had taken the computer, refurbished it and sold it. He managed to track it down to the University of Virginia, who were more than happy to forward along the requested records. My question, which is the same as many others, is why wasn't the computer wiped before leaving the hospital???
You can be sure the hospital is in some serious trouble as this reveals inept record keeping procedures as well as patient neglect and improper records disposal. This will continue to be an interesting but sad tale, as 108 women lost their lives to breast cancer, and it is uncertain if tamoxifen would have helped them.
(Thanks to the Canadian Archivist blog for highlighting the story)
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