"
A report in the Express newspaper on Sunday states that the privately run Brian Lara Cancer Treatment Centre in Trinidad sent a radio oncologist on leave in May 2010 after she urged the centre to conduct the mandatory quality tests on critical equipment. 
Reporter Camini Marajh interviewed Dr Anesa Ahamad, radiation oncologist and former Chief Operating Officer at the centre who now lives in Florida.
Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan raised the alarm about the centre last week when he told reporters that as many as 223 patients may have been exposed to over-radiation. He said the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) made the discovery. The minister urged everyone who may have been exposed to over radiation to get retested.
Read the story: Over radiation at Cancer Centre likely put 223 patients at risk
Dr Ahmad told the Express the centre sent her on leave one month before senior medical physicist Damian Rudder made the discovery that patients were being over-radiated and two months before her contract came to an end.
That was one month before the radiation accident which delivered higher doses of radiation than had been prescribed to the 223 patients.
She told the paper she alerted the board of the centre that the annual quality assurance check for the linear accelerator was due.
"An external physicist visited and informed me on April 23, 2010, that the 2009 annual quality assurance check for the linear accelerator had not been performed," she said in the interview.
"I immediately raised the issue with board members of the BLCTC by phone and e-mail, and in person with the CEO, and underscored the urgency of performing the annual QA, and insisted it be done as soon as possible by a qualified medical physicist.
"Instead of reacting appropriately, I was told that I was making "irresponsible and inciteful" statements. Board members replied to me stating that there was no need to worry and that the machine had had its other recent periodic quality assurance tests (which are of a different level of detail than that of the annual QA tests).
"Instead of reacting appropriately, I was told that I was making "irresponsible and inciteful" statements. Board members replied to me stating that there was no need to worry and that the machine had had its other recent periodic quality assurance tests (which are of a different level of detail than that of the annual QA tests).
"I sent the protocol for these tests and continued to pressure the board to have the annual QA on the linear accelerator performed until I was asked to go on indefinite leave on May 12, 2010, and prohibited from entering the premises or communicating with patients or staff.
"Despite my qualifications, I was never allowed to make substantive decisions regarding staffing or other major operational decisions for the centre.
"Despite my qualifications, I was never allowed to make substantive decisions regarding staffing or other major operational decisions for the centre.
"Hiring and firing of staff and the contracting of services were decisions made by the board of BLCTC, who were all, with the exception of myself, board members, shareholders, or otherwise associates of Medcorp. Medcorp also runs St Clair Hospital, Doctors Radiology Centre and St Clair MRI.
"I had fundamental disagreements on administrative and quality-of-patient care matters throughout my tenure with the board, and my relationship with the rest of the board and its parent company, Medcorp became more strained over time.
"I had fundamental disagreements on administrative and quality-of-patient care matters throughout my tenure with the board, and my relationship with the rest of the board and its parent company, Medcorp became more strained over time.
"This underlying tension was exacerbated by my insistence that the lack of the 2009 annual QA of the linear accelerator was a problem that required immediate attention.
"Damian Rudder's discovery of the linear accelerator miscalibration occurred during his June 2010 annual QA of the machine, which I believe never would have occurred when it did without my insistence that such a QA battery of tests was absolutely essential to the safe operation of the linear accelerator.
"Damian Rudder's discovery of the linear accelerator miscalibration occurred during his June 2010 annual QA of the machine, which I believe never would have occurred when it did without my insistence that such a QA battery of tests was absolutely essential to the safe operation of the linear accelerator.
"Far more patients would have been affected by the dose delivery error of the machine if the error had been caught later."
Read the full report: Cancer Centre Failed Patients
No comments:
Post a Comment