The NLMA is raising serious questions about the new CorCare system – not the least of which is how some patients could be notified of serious results without the benefit of speaking to a doctor.

Through the new system, any patient can check on test results, oftentimes before a physician has had a chance to go over the results and go over them with the patient.

That, says NLMA President Dr. Cynthia Slade, is a very serious concern – one they’ve had even before CorCare rolled out.

“And you can imagine yourself that…on a Friday night, just picking up your phone and checking to if see your CT results have come in, and you look at that and it tells you that – God forbid – you have cancer. The amount of fear and stress and anxiety that that would go through a person, when they’re not able to understand the technical detail of what has been reported, and they’re not able to access anyone to sit down and explain it to them.”

That’s just one of a number of concerns raised with NL Health Services by the NLMA, including delays. She says some departments have had to reduce appointments while integrating into the system.

“Endoscopy for instance, we’ve been told that they reduced the number of available appointments in some places up to 50 per cent to allow staff time to integrate the new system. So we’re obviously concerned how that’s going to affect things in the long term, and how fast recovery efforts are going to be able to reduce those backlogs and restore the system.”