Doc’s claims ‘hurtful’: O’Connor
CAROL CHRISTIAN
Fort McMurray Today staff
After three years of drawing attention to elevated cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan, Dr. John O'Connor now finds himself at a loss to explain “hurtful” comments from a Health Canada medical officer of health that he misreported the cancers.
On March 12, Health Canada’s Dr. Wadieh Yacoub, medical officer of health and director of health protection with the First Nations and Inuit Health branch in Edmonton, told a federal standing committee on environment and sustainable development in Ottawa that O’Connor did not report cancer to the Alberta Cancer Board in a timely manner.
“I was very surprised. It was very unexpected to see those comments,” said O'Conno after learning of Yacoub's comments and reading much of the transcript.
Saying he has great respect for Yacoub and the work he does, O'Connor says he doesn't know why Yacoub made his statements to the committee.
“I have nothing against the man himself. It was hurtful in many ways. It stung, really, especially when I knew we're not in a situation where we have to report then to have it confirmed by colleagues, Liam Griffin and the AMA, that that's the situation. I can't explain it. I have great difficulty explaining it.”
Fort Chip is so frustrated by bureaucracy surrounding the elevated cancer issue and Health Canada's targeting of O'Connor, members are ready to call for Yacoub's resignation.
When O'Connor, the former local physician of Fort Chipewyan, first announced the elevated cancer rates in 2006, he was immediately labelled a whistleblower. Health Canada filed four complaints against him, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta was asked to investigate. Three complaints have since been dropped, though the complaint of causing undue alarm in the community remains.
A story published in the March 17 issue of Today reported no definitive answers from either Health Canada or the college on whether the last complaint against O'Connor would be dropped. The issue came to the forefront at that time with the release of a second cancer study. The findings were released by Alberta Health and Wellness on behalf of the cancer board. The study showed elevated levels of three types of cancers in the small community: biliary tract cancers as a whole, cancers of the blood and lymphatic system, and soft tissue cancers. The study looked into elevated rates of rare cancers, namely cholangiocarcinoma, in Fort Chip. Of the six cases of the rare cancer cholangiocarcinoma suspected by O'Connor, two were confirmed cases. Three were found to be other cancers, and the final case wasn't cancer.
The community issued a statement to Health Canada and the college urging O'Connor to be finally exonerated. The community has had no response to the statement to date.
“It’s my experience we don't report cancers because we don't diagnose cancers. We have strong clinical suspicions and we send people for tests. The diagnosis in the end is made by the specialists,” said O'Connor. It's that specialist who then reports the case to the cancer board, a rule of practice confirmed by O'Connor's Fort Chip successor, Dr. Liam Griffin.
“The protocol for reporting cancers is exactly like John has said. It's very unusual for a GP in my experience to actually register a cancer patient,” said Griffin this morning. He added a GP’s job is to filter through the patients and their symptoms and refer them on to the appropriate specialists or surgeons who actually make the diagnosis, usually through a tissue diagnosis. A copy of that pathology report goes to the cancer registry.
“What I'm doing in Fort Chipewyan … I'm following the same basic procedures and protocols that John did.”
And to doubly ensure he had been been following protocol, O'Connor contacted a colleague, Dr. Lyle Mittlesteadt of the Alberta Medical Association, who confirmed O'Connor's actions were indeed correct.
“That was sort of a confirmation for me … it was confirmed, officially,” said O'Connor who admitted that he started second-guessing himself, wondering if he’d been making reports incorrectly.
He also wonders why Yacoub made these statements some three years into the Fort Chip cancer rates issue.
“One thing that comes to mind right away is how come Dr. Yacoub wouldn't have known, wouldn't have been fully informed about this reporting before he made that statement?”
O’Connor wondered about the motivation behind the statements, and whether this is a last-ditch effort for Health Canada to save face, O'Connor.
“It does feel like it's a little bit of a last ditch effort or something,” he said. He reiterated that respecting what Yacoub does and having no grudges against him makes it that much harder for him to understand it.
Health Canada was unable to provide comments by deadline today, citing the Easter holiday.
George Poitras, community spokesman for the Mikisew Cree, said Health Canada, through its First Nation Inuit health branch, is the branch responsible for delivering health-care services to community of Fort Chip.
“We feel very strongly that they have a … fiduciary responsibility to protect the health of residents of both of the First Nations in Fort Chipewyan. By calling into question Dr. O'Connor's credibility or his reputation, by lodging complaints against him, to us, we feel, is in direct contradiction of what their role should be.”
He's standing up for the community and that's what he is supposed to be doing, said Poitras. He added the federal government has had no endorsement from the Nunee Health Board Society which speaks on behalf of the community on health care prior to laying any complaints against O'Connor.
Poitras described Fort Chipewyan residents as “really, really frustrated” with the bureaucracy from all levels of government, including individual agencies such as Heath Canada and Alberta Health. That frustration now stretches to the municipality. which Poitras says has “done nothing to show they're protecting their constituents in Fort Chipewyan.” While he describes the municipality’s attitude as uncaring, he said it's only lately it has shown some interest in trying to find a resolution, forced into action through public pressure.
“So, it shouldn't come as a surprise residents in Fort Chip are calling for action, not only from Health Canada but also from the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons, and more recently (for) the resignation of one of Health Canada’s doctors by (Mary Simpson) a member of the community who on March 6 represented 300 people at a community meeting,” said Poitras.
— cchristian@fortmcmurraytoday.com
http://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1523383
