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MONCTON - Another review had recommended Dr. Rajgopal Menon be fired, says a report filed Wednesday to the provincial inquiry into Miramichi pathology services, along with documentation that very few of the doctor's reports were free of any problems.

The quality assurance review completed in August 2007 concluded that Menon not be re-hired.

"As for the restitution of Rajgopal Menon on the medical staff in pathology, based on my review, I would strongly recommend against it," wrote Dr. Vernon Bowes, who authored the review.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons suspended Menon in February 2007. In wake of this suspension the Miramichi health authority ordered a review of the pathologist's work.

The review also looked into the work of Dr. Dariusz Strzelczak, the only other staff pathologist working at Miramichi hospital.

The report concludes that while Strzelczak's reports were "consistently of excellent quality with detailed documentation that covers all appropriate points with no contradictory statements," Menon's work was "in many aspects of poor quality."

"There is great variability in documentation, clarity and even understanding," wrote Bowes of Menon. "A few of his reports were totally undecipherable to this reviewer. Very few reports of (Menon's work) reviewed were free of any deficiencies."

From a total of 3,227 cases signed off on in 2006 at the hospital, 414 cases were selected for review. They represented a common pathologist's workload, including a wide scope of colon, breast and prostate cancer cases.

The report recommended that turnaround times by both pathologists should be improved, but then proceeded to isolate Menon's practice as a distinctive problem.

Only 40 per cent of Menon's cases dealing with prostate core biopsies were reported within the acceptable time frame of seven days.

A combined 49 per cent of those breast cancer results were not completed within the frame, wrote Bowes.

One case of breast cancer testing was two months late.

All nine of Menon's reviewed colon cancer cases were not within minimum guidelines either.

Bowes wrote that Menon even used outdated terminology in his reports which lead to "minor disagreement in diagnosis" of some results.

The commission did not speak to this report on Wednesday.

A different review of Menon's work was in January 2008. Pathologist Dr. Rosemary Henderson completed a review focusing on 227 cases of prostate and breast cancer biopsies from 2004-2005. The review found 18 per cent of the cases had incomplete results and that three in every 100 cases had been misdiagnosed.

The province is currently reviewing more than 24,000 of Menon's cases completed between 1995 and 2007 in an Ottawa lab.