Life-and-death decisions are best undertaken in a calm and collected fashion. That, at least, is what you might hope for in a pathology lab, where tissue samples are examined for signs of cancer.
But, as our story this morning reveals, stressed pathologists are making errors in breast cancer diagnoses because they are being asked to deliver results within unrealistic time frames.
The Herald on Sunday has now reported on three cases in which women were subjected to disfiguring mastectomies after being wrongly diagnosed with breast cancer. Test results or tissue samples had been mixed up; women who had been given the all-clear were left untreated.
This week, Waikato pathologist Dr Ian Beer admitted an Auckland woman had a breast removed in December after he had wrongly diagnosed her with cancer. Her test results imitated those for disease and he was rushed. "When you are interpreting pathology, you shouldn't be rushed."
Beer persuasively argues that he and his colleagues are "being set up to fail". They want the deadline - currently five days for suspected breast-cancer specimens - doubled to 10 days, which is the turnaround time expected for other cancer diagnoses.
