MONTREAL - A study released last week indicates there are problems with Quebec's breast cancer screening practices, but that the majority of the province's patients have likely received the correct treatment for their illness, says Health Minister Yves Bolduc.
"We can reassure them that the majority of tests were OK," he told the media Sunday following a two-hour meeting with the province's leading pathologists and oncologists.
"We don't have all the answers today but I guarantee that we'll get them quickly."
Louis Gaboury, president of the association that represents the province's pathologists, said his study has been misinterpreted.
"I never said that 30 per cent of the test were wrong," he said. "You can't extrapolate (from the study) that 20 to 30 per cent of women received the wrong treatment."
But neither Gaboury nor the minister closed the door on the need re-testing in certain cases.
"The study showed that there's an unacceptable variability in the labs in the province," Gaboury said.
"How many patients may have (received the wrong treatment)? We don't know."
Bolduc stressed the need for the standardization of lab practices in the province but added that a natural variability was to be expected in medical diagnosis.
"Quality is present in Quebec," he said. "But the study showed a variability in the tests. (But) just because there's variability doesn't mean they're wrong."
Quebec has been working for a year on provincewide quality control measures for its pathology labs, but Gaetan Barrette, the president of the association that represents the province's medical specialists, says the problems in the labs are long-term and systemic.
He claims that any problems stem from the increasingly complex analyses necessary in medical diagnosis, outdated equipment, ongoing funding shortfalls and a need for more specialists.
"Are we lacking pathologists? A lot. Do they have the proper equipment. It's a blatant no," Barrette said.
He compared the pathologist labs to "the fifth wheel of the wagon" in the health care system.
"It's behind the scenes and it never gets the attention it deserves."
But Bolduc was quick to accuse Barrette of spreading misinformation to meet his own ends.
"He's speaking for a union," the minister said angrily. "You have to look at his credibility in that context."
Quebec's breast cancer patients became concerned last Wednesday after Universite de Montreal research raised the spectre of an inquiry earlier this year that concluded that problems throughout Newfoundland and Labrador's health-care system led to at least 386 patients receiving the wrong results on tests.
On Saturday, Bolduc and Premier Jean Charest pleaded for patience from the women seeking information on their breast cancer diagnosis and tests.
More information is expected Monday after Quebec's college of physicians releases its report on the flawed laboratory tests.
Each year, some 6,000 women in Quebec are diagnosed with breast cancer.
