Cancer patients from the French islands of St-Pierre-Miquelon, off the south coast of Newfoundland, say they were the last to know about breast cancer testing mistakes in the labs of Eastern Health.
Now the patients want standing at an inquiry looking into those mistakes, and are waiting for a written apology.
France pays for its citizens on the islands to receive treatment from the Newfoundland and Labrador health-care system, allowing them to travel to St. John’s.
The Eastern Health authority, at the centre of a public inquiry investigating why hundreds of breast cancer patients received inaccurate hormone receptor test results, began telling its Canadian patients in 2005 that a problem had been discovered.
Hormone receptor tests are used to determine which course of treatment a patient already diagnosed with breast cancer should receive.
Jacqueline Park, Canada’s honorary consul to St-Pierre-Miquelon, told CBC that some French patients weren’t told about the faulty tests until this spring.
Park helped establish a patient’s rights group in St-Pierre-Miquelon for those affected by the faulty tests from Eastern Health after hearing about a French woman’s struggle to find out about potential problems with her breast cancer treatment.
“That’s when I discovered what this person was going through since 2005, and it is really abominable,” Park said.
The group Park formed is demanding to have its say at the inquiry headed by Justice Margaret Cameron, and has written a letter to her asking for standing at the inquiry.
Peter Dawe, executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador branch of the Canadian Cancer Society, said he was shocked that the French patients were not getting the information that Canadian patients were.
“Absolutely, I think they were overlooked,” Dawe told CBC News. “We were amazed that they had so many questions and nobody was sharing information with them.”
Nine, or possibly 10, hormone receptor tests from French patients were redone along with those of patients from Newfoundland and Labrador. Of those nine or 10, three tests were converted, or got different results on retesting. Three other patients have died and the results of their retests are not known.
Still waiting for apology
In April, Eastern Health sent letters of apology to the Canadian patients affected by the botched test results.
However, Andrée Olano, president of the St-Pierre-Miquelon patients rights group, said patients from the French islands have yet to receive any such letter.
“It’s very difficult emotionally, for us, for the patients who had the wrong tests,” Olano said.
“And for the families too — we have contacts with these people — that’s awful,” Olano said about the lack of apology for the French patients.
Patricia Pilgrim, chief operating officer at Eastern Health, confirmed Friday that the letters to St-Pierre-Miquelon patients were not sent because of problems translating the English copy to French.
“We did have problems with the communication process that we set up,” Pilgrim said.
The Cameron inquiry has been hearing testimony in St. John’s since March.
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