Grey Bruce Health Services is working to inform patients whether their pathology cases will be reviewed.
CEO Pat Campbell says the first wave of letters will start going out this morning.
Campbell says the 600 most recent cases will be reviewed first.
She says these are patients whose diagnosis or treatment may have been affected by errors made by a pathologist.
A routine quality assurance test in February identified an error in one of Doctor Barry Sawka’s findings.
An internal review of 600 of Sawka’s most recent cases found an error rate of six percent — the normal error rate for pathologists is about one percent.
The review also found the errors have the potential to have altered the further investigation or treatment of patients and including missing cancer diagnoses.
Campbell says Dr. Sawka reviewed about 40 thousand cases during his career, adding she is hoping the review findings are positive and there is not need to go through all 40 thousand reports.
Campbell says additional support is required for the review.
She says they are working on acquiring additional pathology staff to help with the process.
Campbell says its not known how long the review could take or what challenges they may face.
