Doctor waits 16 days for cancer patient's lab test results

Ulf Lindskog. Photo / Greg Bowker

Auckland's new laboratory company is blaming an administrative error after a GP was kept waiting 16 days for the results of tests he ordered for a cancer patient.

Walter Harrison, 63, of Cockle Bay in southeast Auckland, is dying of bowel cancer, which has spread to his liver and other parts of his body. He has had surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy and last year also suffered a heart attack.

On August 10, Labtests' first day of operation under its contract with Auckland's three district health boards, Mr Harrison went to the company's collection centre in Botany Rd.

He presented two request forms - one from his GP, Dr Marcus Hawkins, and the other from his cancer specialist, Professor Michael Findlay. He explained there were two requests, then noticed a staff member stapling them together.

Labtests has acknowledged that the GP's request was overlooked and not entered into its computer system - because it was attached underneath the specialist's order form.

Results of the specialist-ordered tests were sent to Professor Findlay on the day they were done, August 10. They showed low haemoglobin, indicating anaemia. Because Mr Harrison had not reported chest pain when he saw Professor Findlay on August 12, no immediate action was required.

A week after the tests, Mr Harrison phoned his clinic about the GP-ordered tests but the results had not arrived. Dr Hawkins tried to obtain the specialist's results, but Labtests would not release them and did so only after receiving Mr Harrison's consent.

On August 25, Mr Harrison consulted Dr Hawkins. He had been suffering chest pain.

Based on the August 10 haemoglobin result and the chest pain, the GP sent Mr Harrison to Middlemore Hospital for a blood transfusion - and also for a check on abdominal problems related to the cancer.

Mr Harrison said yesterday that he had received the transfusion and felt much better. He had more energy and no chest pain when he walked.

"It seems to have given me a real lift. I was certainly down, that's for sure."

Labtests performed the GP-ordered tests once its error was identified.

Dr Hawkins received the results on the day after he sent Mr Harrison to hospital. He said it was a serious matter for a blood test request to be overlooked. "It could be potentially life-threatening."

Labtests chief executive Ulf Lindskog said: "It's regrettable Dr Hawkins didn't receive the results as he should have." He said the specialist was given the results necessary to manage the patient appropriately. They were not within "critical parameters" so did not need urgent notification.

Labtests withheld the specialist's results until it received Mr Harrison's consent because it was policy not to release results to doctors unless marked "copy to" practitioner.

Diagnostic Medlab, which Labtests is replacing as the provider of Greater Auckland's taxpayer-financed community pathology service, said it would release results to a GP in such circumstances. Chief executive Arthur Morris said it was straightforward to confirm such a request was legitimate.