Nfld. health CEO resigns after breast cancer test results scandal

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -- Fallout from Newfoundland's breast cancer controversy continued Monday with the resignation of George Tilley as the president of the regional health body.

The chair of Eastern Health's board of directors, Joan Dawe, confirmed in a news release Monday that Tilley had resigned.

Tilley could not immediately be reached for comment.

Tilley had been the CEO since 2005, but had come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks over the faulty breast cancer screening results controversy, which date back to 1997. The hormone receptor tests determine what type of cancer treatment women should get. Because the women got the wrong results on their tests, they may have missed out on lifesaving treatments. Over two dozen women who received the wrong results died, but it is not clear whether the deaths were related to their breast cancer. In all about 300 women received wrong test results between 1997-2005.

Tilley is the second prominent health official to go since the faulty hormone receptor testing controversy erupted in mid-May.

John Abbott, the former deputy minister of health, was offered another position in the government in late May, but decided to return to the private sector.

Tilley apologized in mid-June for not stating publicly that 40-plus per cent of the negative test results reviewed -- 317 out of 763 -- were wrong. In December, the health authority had suggested the error rate would be in the range of 10 per cent.

The true extent of the problem was revealed in court documents.

Tilley’s resignation comes less than one week after Justice Margaret A. Cameron opened a commission of inquiry into flawed cancer testing at Eastern Health.

The provincial government announced the inquiry on May 22 and Cameron’s report is due in a year.

A class-action lawsuit has also been launched. Roughly 2,800 people -- every breast cancer patient who received a hormone receptor test from Eastern Health between 1997 and 2005 -- are now eligible to sign on to the class action.

source : www.canada.com