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Adam Huras
Telegraph-Journal

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MONCTON - Patients who feel that they have been harmed by misdiagnosis, error and a lack of quality control at a Miramichi hospital pathology lab are taking their case to court.

Halifax lawyer Raymond Wagner, on behalf of the hospital's patients, will today formally file a class action suit against Miramichi's Regional Hospital Authority.

"It has been in the works for some time," said Wagner. "This class action is being filed to hold (the hospital authority) accountable for its inadequate standard of care delivered to the people of the Miramichi Region who, as a result, have lost faith in their hospital."

While details of the lawsuit will be released today, Wagner said the case is based on allegations of negligent hiring and poor quality control over medical services in the pathology department. It names particularly Dr. Rajgopal Menon.

A review of Menon's work earlier this year found discrepancies with 18 per cent of the 226 breast and prostate cancer reports reviewed. The results launched a provincial inquiry into what went wrong in the Miramichi lab.

A total of 28 witnesses and 10 members of the public have been heard to date, including Menon himself. The commission resumes its inquiry in September.

All of the cases Menon reviewed while employed in Miramichi are also now under review.

"The (health authority) knew of Dr. Menon's history and his shortcomings at the pathology lab at the Miramichi Regional Hospital and the dangers posed to the public," said Wagner. "However (they) chose to hire, to continue to credential the physician and not promptly take corrective measures or to inform the public when serious problems emerged."

The action is being filed by 50 individuals on behalf of all those patients who had a biopsy or other procedure performed at the Miramichi Regional Hospital between 1995 and February 2007. Wagner said more than 1,000 former hospital patients have inquired about the lawsuit.

"While it a significant number of those persons who had biopsies will learn that their original test results were correct, nevertheless they suffered great mental distress," said Wagner. "Our lawsuit, therefore, is for all persons who had a biopsy performed at the hospital between 1995 and 2007, not just those unfortunate persons who may be advised that their original results were incorrect."

Wagner hopes this class action will force health authorities to be more accountable.

"The ultimate outcome is to bring order to a hospital organization that has pathology department or other departments that are not properly supervised," he said. "The goal of the class action is to improve the quality and then the confidence that the people of the community have in receiving the best possible care they can."