Review launched as 2nd N.L. radiologist suspended

For the second time in a month, a health authority in Newfoundland and Labrador has suspended a radiologist over concerns about the quality of work with diagnostic imaging.

The Central Health regional authority announced Friday it is reviewing the work of an unnamed radiologist, after complaints were received from fellow physicians.

The radiologist had been working from the hospital in Gander.

"Obviously, this release will be unsettling to the general public," said chief executive officer Karen McGrath.

In the three years that the radiologist has been working in Gander, the radiologist worked on about 49,000 X-rays, CT scans and other records.

Of those records, though, McGrath said that only fivewere flagged by other physicians.

Most of the concerns, she said, were expressed since February, with three raised in the past six to eight weeks.

She said there are no indications that any patient's health has been compromised.

Central Health's decision comes on the heels of Eastern Health's suspension of a radiologist working at the Burin Peninsula Health Care Centre, in Salt Pond.

Eastern Health conducted a small internal review before suspending that radiologist, whom the authority has not identified. CBC News is not reporting the radiologist's name on legal advice.

Working to review thousands of records

Some 22 radiologists within Eastern Health are working day and night to finish a review of about 4,600 records that the Burin radiologist generated since last November.

Central Health has commissioned a radiologist in Grand Falls-Windsor to review at least 50 records generated by the Gander radiologist.

McGrath said Central Health would normally wait until that review is completed before informing the public.

She said managers decided to go public because of heightened awareness over the Eastern Health suspension.

Eastern Health disclosed the Burin radiologist's suspension 12 days after it was ordered. Eastern Health said it made the disclosure because of a furor sparked by revelations that it had withheld information about faulty lab tests involving hundreds of breast cancer patients.