Lessons learned, long way to go: Eastern Health head

Eastern Health, the authority at the centre of Newfoundland and Labrador's breast cancer testing scandal, is in a better position to respond if similar errors ever happen again, the authority's leader said.

Louise Jones, who became interim chief executive officer of Eastern Health in July 2007, amid a widening uproar over how hundreds of breast cancer patients had been given the wrong results for hormone receptor tests, said the authority's biggest failure was not to step back and look at the bigger picture.

"We didn't put a team in place to manage the whole process, and that has been one of our major learnings," Jones said in an interview Tuesday.

"You cannot work this off the corner of a desk," she said. "So, there's been lots of learnings. We would never do anything like this again without a dedicated team."

Justice Margaret Cameron finished hearing testimony at a judicial inquiry in late October. Her report, which is examining what went wrong with the tests as well as how officials responded to the problems, is due by March 1.

During seven months of testimony, Cameron heard about a litany of troubles, from dire warnings about the pathology lab not being heeded to Eastern Health's decision to withhold information from patients and the public about the hormone receptor tests, which help determine whether a patient will receive the potentially lifesaving antihormonal treatment Tamoxifen.

Soul-searching

Jones said the last year has been a period of soul-searching for Eastern Health, which has come in for plenty of criticism — not only from the public, but also from politicians and government officials.

The outcry, and the inquiry, have led to a very different health authority, Jones said.

"This idea of speaking more publicly and being out there, talking about what's going on inside Eastern Health, and moving forward, letting people know exactly where we are is part of the way that we are moving our 12,000 employees and 700 physicians to a new place," said Jones.

Jones said various changes have been made. Some senior managers are gone, and workers are being trained in new procedures and policies.

But, Jones cautioned, a culture change does not happen overnight.