Health minister puts managers on notice

Newfoundland and Labrador's health minister has warned health-care managers they could be fired if they fail to live up to new accountability standards.

"People will be held accountable," Health Minister Jerome Kennedy said Wednesday, after Eastern Health announced disciplinary action and the resignation of a senior manager following revelations of botched lab testing.

Kennedy said he is disturbed not only by problems with testing quality, but also by how staff failed to alert managers to lab errors.

"If people have not learned the lessons, then they are either going to have to move on or be moved on," Kennedy said.

Dr. Nash Denic resigned Wednesday as the director of laboratory services at Eastern Health, after authority CEO Vickie Kaminski said officials within the organization were too slow to alert senior managers to problems with cyclosporine testing.

The biochemistry lab was found to be producing inaccurate results involving cyclosporine, an immunosuppressant that has a variety of uses, including organ transplants. Too much of the drug can cause serious kidney damage.

Kennedy said the revelations are unacceptable, given the findings of an inquiry headed by Justice Margaret Cameron into flawed hormone receptor testing involving hundreds of breast cancer tests. Cameron's 2009 report laid strong recommendations on improving lab quality at Eastern Health, as well as accountability measures.

As well, Kennedy noted that the Newfoundland and Labrador government had accepted the work of a task force on adverse health events, which also called for significantly tighter protocols on disclosure and accountability.

Kennedy said he is puzzled by what he has learned in the last few weeks, including revelations that a month passed before problems with cyclosporine testing made their way to Eastern Health's senior management.

Confidence lacking

"Do I have confidence in learning the lessons of Cameron? No, I don't," Kennedy told reporters.

"It's questionable even as to whether or not they were aware that they had to report. That causes me grave concern."

Kennedy said managers across the health-care system must realize there is a new standard in place for accountability.

"My question right now is does a culture exist within the health-care system that refuses to accept the lessons of Cameron. In other words, there has to be a total acceptance of responsibility, there has to be an acceptance that we screwed up and we're going to learn from our mistakes."

But Liberal Leader Yvonne Jones said the government's own calls for accountability do not seem to apply at the political level. She noted that the government has gone through several health ministers since problems with the breast cancer tests were first flagged in 2005, but none has been held accountable for what happened.

"We had minister [Ross] Wiseman, who didn't read his briefing notes and looked for someone else to blame for the problems. We [saw] little or no action under Paul Oram when he was the minister," Jones said. Oram resigned hastily from politics last October, citing stress from politics and media scrutiny as factors in his departure.

"Now we have minister Kennedy there, and again he's out looking for somebody to blame, but at some point they have to take responsibility," Jones said.

New Democratic Party Leader Lorraine Michael said the latest lab problems prove to her that a thorough review of the entire health-care system in Newfoundland and Labrador is warranted.

"If they're shaking the minister's confidence, he can be assured that these mistakes are shaking the confidence of the people as well," Michael said.

"Once again, I say it's another indication of needing an external review of our whole system."