MONTREAL - Four Montreal hospitals are helping the Lakeshore General Hospital with almost 700 colonoscopies after patients were found to have irregularities in their exams.
New tests will be performed at weekend clinics after a quality-control review found one Lakeshore General doctor had botched exams over the past three years.
It's estimated about a dozen patients were given false negatives.
Staff at the Lakeshore – as well as the Royal Victoria, Montreal General, Jewish General and St-Mary's Hospitals – are working overtime to retest any patients concerned.
“(The staff) says 'I know a lot of people in the West Island, maybe it will be one of them' and I think people want to help out,” said Josee Parent, a gastroenterologist at the Montreal General Hospital. “It's a sad situation.”
All of the hospitals assure that the clinics will not affect current wait times.
“These are extra resources that were provided by the ministry to take care of this specific group of patients,” said Parent.
Meantime, patients are anxiously awaiting new results – and worrying about new outcomes.
After receiving a colonoscopy at the Lakeshore General Hospital last year, Marc Lefaivre said he never questioned the results, much less his doctor.
“He seems to be on the ball following my case appropriately and so I didn't think anything other than that I figured I was in good hands," said Lefaivre.
Last Saturday Lefaivre's re-test revealed three large polyps.
“I did ask the (new) doctor if these polyps would have been visible last year, and he was apprehensive about answering that question,” he said.
Lefaivre is currently awaiting biopsy results.
“I think my fear is that someone comes back and tells you that you have cancer,” he said, adding that he currently has no interest in a class action lawsuit being prepared against the Lakeshore.
“If in three weeks or a month from now the Lakeshore tells me I have colon cancer, I may have a completely different opinion,” he said.
