Documents shed no light on errors
Central Health’s response to an access to information request from Saltwire Network on mammography discrepancies provides no real insight into the diagnostic errors affecting thousands of patients around the province who have had the test — used to detect breast cancer — except a back and forth of what kind of backdrop was preferential at a news conference.
About a dozen PDFS sent to Saltwire — which filed the request the same day Central Health revealed the potential of mammography errors, Aug. 22 — are mostly redacted. That includes minutes of a medical advisory commitee that overlaps the timing of the review.
On Monday afternoon, Aug. 22, there was a stream of messages between various health officials around the provinces with the email slug “RE: Urgent meeting - Possible multiregion issue” and participants being asked to adjust their schedules for the Microsoft Teams meeting. Details surrounding that meeting are also redacted.
There’s also this from Eastern Health regarding a meeting on the issue: “Hi everyone, following discussion at this morning’s meeting, please find the attached draft minutes of the August 22 meeting re possible provincial issue (MI Mammography reporting)."
It’s followed by three full pages of redaction.
On the day the public advisory was issued regarding the possibility of the errors, a redacted email from a St. John’s law firm ends with the unredacted statement, “I hope everyone has a restful evening.”
There is also a string of redacted emails back and forth with the law firm that date back to Aug. 18 — days before the potential of the errors was publicly released.
The legal emails are redacted, with the reason being given that they are legal advice.
There are also redacted emails from a Halifax-based social intelligence consultant dated the day after the public advisory and the day before the news conference.
The draft of a letter to patients was also redacted. The only insight to that was an email that advised it had been redrafted.
Exceptions to the heavy redaction include an overall mammography procedure guide, the Canadian Association of Radiologists national guidelines and technical standards and the terms of reference for the then-yet to be completed quality assurance review, which aims to identify areas for improvement, among other goals.
On Aug. 22, Central Health issued a public advisory saying it had advised the Department of Health it was reviewing mammography results to identify possible diagnostic discrepancies. That triggered subsequent reviews by all the province’s health authorities.
In planning a news conference set for two days later, Central Health contacted Eastern Health for help setting up a virtual event with participants in various locations, including New Brunswick and St. John’s.
On Aug. 23, Eastern Health’s video producer advised the studio it could broadcast from has a black backdrop, a dark grey wall with a window or a pulldown screen available in white, grey, green, light blue and yellow.
A communications official chimed in the “simple black curtain backdrop” was the preference.
There was also a back and forth about scheduling a dry run prior to the news conference with Central Health CEO and president Andrée Robichaud, Central Health acting chief of staff Mark Spurrell and Eastern Health clinical chief of medical imaging Dr. Angela Pickles.
The response to Saltwire Network’s access to information request reveals the continued appetite for media monitoring among government entities.
On Aug. 23, a communications officer monitoring media play of Central Health’s initial public advisory provided links to stories from Saltwire, VOCM and NTV.
“Tuned into VOCM for most of the morning, largely devoted to Stanley Cup and Stephenville hydrogen deal,” the communications officer wrote to his superior.
“New-wes-valley Mayor Mike Tiller did come on to talk about temporary closures at DYKJKHC (Dr. Y.K. Jeon Kittiwake Health Centre).”
The review of mammography results by the province’s four health authorities was triggered when Central Health discovered some scans were reviewed on workstations with threemegapixel screens.
Health Canada standards were changed in 2013 to require a five-megapixel resolution for interpreting mammograms.
About 16,000 scans going back years — as far back as 2013 for Western Health — are being reviewed.
Quality assurance reviews by each authority have either already been completed or are in progress.