SA Pathology boss Ken Barr sacked over cancer blunder revelations

UPDATE: Health Minster Jack Snelling says faulty testing kits provided by a private company are believed to be the cause of false prostate cancer diagnoses, and more heads could roll over the scandal.

Generic photo illustrating doctor and patient

• How the Sunday Mail broke the story: Cancer blunder like being on ‘death row’
• Clinicians sacked for spying on patient records
• Medics spied on Cy Walsh records
• ‘Typo’ led to cancer patients not receiving full treatment
• Spy cameras hidden in SA Pathology smoke alarms

HEALTH Minster Jack Snelling says faulty testing kits from a private company are believed to be the cause of false prostate cancer diagnoses, and more heads could roll over the scandal.

Mr Snelling today gave an update over the SA Pathology bungle, which is believed to have affected about 100 men, and said he was fuming about having being left in the dark.

“I am beside myself with rage that this could happen and it not occur to anyone in SA Pathology that this was something that needed to be briefed up to the chief executive of SA Health and ultimately to me,” Mr Snelling said. “It would hard not to describe it as a cover up.

“When mistakes are made, what I expect is for people to be accountable for them and for people to be forthright so that we can provide assurances ... about the quality of our health system.

“Potentially, if wFe find further cases of people not being upfront with the people of SA and not providing me with the information I need to do my job effectively, yes heads will roll.”

Mr Snelling said he did not have complete confidence in the information he received since the matter was brought to his attention by the Sunday Mail on Saturday afternoon, but “it appears that this is because of things that were outside the control of SA Pathology”.

“There was a problem with the testing kits provided by the external company to SA Pathology to conduct the tests,” Mr Snelling said. He did not name the company, but said it could be liable.

Mr Snelling said the recent performance of the health department, which included patients receiving incorrect chemotherapy doses and patient record hacking, had “left a lot to be desired”.

Mr Snelling rejected suggestions there should be a judicial inquiry into the entire department, saying the failings had been isolated to a relatively small number of people.

“There is nothing to indicate that anyone has received unnecessary treatment because of any of these tests,” Mr Snelling said. He said he believed all dodgy tests had been rechecked.

The doctor who raised the alarm on a major bungle that led to about 100 men with prostate cancer being wrongly diagnosed says “it’s possible” some of those men were treated unnecessarily on the basis of that false diagnosis.

The Sunday Mail and Advertiser.com.au exclusively revealed claims from leading urologist Dr Peter Sutherland that patients had received false positive results since January, despite many having had their prostate glands removed.

Today, he said it was possible some of those men went on to receive unnecessary radiotherapy treatment.

“It’s possible,” Dr Sutherland said this morning.

“The thing we commonly do in this situation is if we’re worried about cancer growing in a man in this situation, we’re worried the cancer is growing from the area the cancer is removed from so commonly we’d treat the prostate bed area.”

Any patients who received treatment would have been risking possible side-effects, as with any surgery or medical intervention, he said.

SA Health moved to sack the executive director of Pathology SA, Ken Barr, within hours of the bungle being revealed by the Sunday Mail.

However, it can now be revealed Mr Barr told staff in an internal memo on February 16 that he had decided to leave SA anyway when his contract expired on July 23.

A copy of the memo, sighted by The Advertiser, states the decision came following a meeting with a senior staff member in charge of Statewide Clinical Support Services.

“Following a meeting yesterday with Steve Morris as group executive director of SCSS, I have confirmed to him that on completion of my contract with SA Health on 23rd July I will be leaving my post as executive director of SA Pathology and returning to my family in the UK,” Mr Barr wrote.

“I am conscious of the significant challenges ahead for both SA Pathology, particularly around the EY project, EPLIS and the transition to nRAH. You can be assured of my ongoing commitment to SA Pathology between now and the end of my contract.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for all your hard work and strong support for me since I arrived in October 2012. It has been an honour and privilege to work with you. I will be taking home some fantastic memories of my time here.”

He also tweeted about his intentions to work in the UK National Health Service.

The decision came about the time doctors sounded the alarm on dodgy testing within the department and after an SA Pathology scandal over hidden cameras recording staff.

Today, an angry Jack Snelling said he’d “had a gutful” of being given inadequate or incorrect information by senior health bureaucrats as the fallout from the bungle continues.

While reluctant to pre-empt the findings of an investigation into the errors, Mr Snelling today said there had been a breakdown in normal protocols that were designed to ensure the Minister and senior executives were made aware of problems in the system.

“We are only as good as the information that’s provided up to us and sometimes that information is inadequate or incorrect,” Mr Snelling said.

“And I’ve had a gutful of it and that’s why the chief executive of SA Health has taken the decision he took (in sacking Mr Barr).”

Mr Snelling said an independent investigator would be brought in from interstate “to get to the absolute bottom of this”.

He declined to comment on whether it was likely the government would face legal action over the bungle.

“Look, it would still be very, very early days yet and I wouldn’t be in a position to comment.”

Opposition Health spokesman Stephen Wade today said Mr Snelling had “lost control of his department” and should take responsibility for a culture of secrecy.

“He and his party have presided over the health system for 14 years. He is responsible for

the secretive and unaccountable organisation that is SA Health,” Mr Wade said.

On February 17, in a tweet via an account that appears to belong to Mr Barr, he told followers he was leaving Pathology SA and flagged a possible new role in the UK.

“Amazing time with SA Pathology but time to move to new challenges. “I can feel NHS #Pathology calling from 10,000 miles away.”

Amazing time with SA Pathology but time to move to new challenges. I can feel NHS #Pathology calling from 10,000 miles away #Carter 😉‼️

— Ken Barr (@ken8158) February 17, 2016

A specialist SA Health team is now scrambling to determine how many people have been affected and the cause of the error, which is believed to be a machine malfunction.

Mr Barr has also been publicly savaged by Mr Snelling for overseeing a “cover-up” which has created distress among patients who wrongly believed they had cancer.

The SA Health team is to identify all affected patients and contact them.

Central Adelaide Health Network chief executive Julia Squire said she had been unable to get “complete clarification on exactly what has occurred” since the news broke.

Ken Barr, who has been sacked as SA Pathology’s executive director. Pic: SA Pathology website

She said the estimate of about 100 affected patients “feels about right”, but must be checked.

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality will conduct an independent review, on request of SA Health, to examine testing standards and the care and attention given to patients.

Mr Snelling was unaware of the scandal until approached for comment the day before publication and accused SA Pathology of misleading him and the public in a “cover-up”.

A fortnight ago, SA Pathology released an obtuse media statement on its website about “improved testing”, stating that recent PSA (prostate-specific antigen) results had been “highly accurate and reliable in the core range” but it had “moved to improve values below 0.15ug/L”.

Mr Snelling said he didn’t “have an enormous amount of confidence in what I’ve been told”.

“I don’t think anyone reading that release on the website would think for a moment that it was reporting something on the scale of what we’ve seen,” Mr Snelling said.

“It is just simply unacceptable for me to be finding information about things on this sort of scale from journalists, rather than through my department. “I’m very, very angry about it.

“It was incredibly distressing to some of our patients and should have been briefed up to me.

“These sorts of cover-ups are unacceptable. When they do occur, we’ll take appropriate action.”

Mr Snelling said the Government must be “open and frank” about its mistakes.

SA Pathology was the focus for another scandal last year, when hidden cameras were used to spy on staff. A review found they were inappropriate, but no laws were breached.

At the time, Mr Snelling said there had been poor judgment by SA Pathology management.

The health department has also been under intense scrutiny in recent months after it was revealed the private records of patients, including accused murderer Cy Walsh, were hacked by clinicians. That case was also only brought to public attention by media reporting.

The Advertiseralso first revealed in August that 10 patients at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre had received only half their required chemotherapy doses due to a typo.

Mr Swan said he was “very concerned that patients have been led to believe they may have prostate cancer by false readings” and “it is clear even at this stage that there have been a number of issues that SA Pathology has not reported or managed effectively”.

Anyone with any concerns should call SA Pathology Enquiries on 8222 3000.

Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade said Mr Snelling had “clearly has lost control of his own department” and was regularly “kept in the dark about problems in our health system”.

“He and his Party have presided over the health system for 14 years. He is responsible for

the secretive and unaccountable organisation that is SA Health,” Mr Wade said.

Duncan Basheer Hannon partner Patrick Boylen said the affected patients could have grounds for a class action against SA Pathology to recover medical costs and compensate for suffering.

“There is potential negligence action there against SA Pathology,” he said. “There appears to be something like 100 (people affected), and faulty machine or testing processes.

“In terms of damages, you’ve got unnecessary medical expenses, perhaps time off work, pain and suffering associated with surgery plus the stress of the wrong diagnosis.”

One patient who received a false positive test said he went through “hell’’ because of the error, and it took weeks before being cleared. “For 30 days I felt like I was on death row,” he said.

Dr Sutherland said a positive result might mean a patient goes on to have treatment including radiotherapy to the base of the spine, which can produce extra side effects and problems.

Anyone with any concerns should call SA Pathology Enquiries on 8222 3000.

Mishaps under Jack Snelling’s watch

Sunday — SA Pathology executive Ken Barr is sacked after the Sunday Mail revealed about 100 men had been falsely diagnosed with prostate cancer, and a review is launched. Mr Snelling said: “These things are very rare, but when they do happen we take decisive action”.

Health Minister Jack Snelling

February 2016 — Thirteen clinicians are caught spying on the medical records of Cy Walsh, accused of murdering his father and former Adelaide Crows coach Phil Walsh. The Advertiser also reveals allegations private security contractors regularly spy on patient records and that one contacted a female patient. The Government reveals two clinicians have been sacked for snooping. Mr Snelling said: “The vast majority of SA Health staff do the right thing and handle this information appropriately. However, there are very rare occasions when some don’t.”

August 2015 — The Advertiser reveals 10 patients at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre received only half their chemotherapy doses due to a typographical error. The patients had acute myeloid leukaemia. Mr Snelling said: “Incidents such as this are incredibly rare”.

March 2015 — An investigation determines cameras hidden in smoke detectors that spied on SA Pathology staff were inappropriate but had not broken any laws. Mr Snelling said the decision “seems to show pretty poor judgment” by Mr Barr, who was in charge at the time.

October 2014 — The State Government launches Transforming Health, which it says will deliver more cost-effective services by creating specialist hospitals and directing patients to the place where they can get faster and better treatment. Has become a political headache amid campaigns to keep the Repatriation General Hospital open and backlashes from some clinicians.