SA Health Minister Jack Snelling blames false-positive prostate cancer readings on faulty testing kits

Faulty testing kits are the reason behind the false-positive prostate cancer reading of 100 South Australian men who had surgery. The patients already had their prostate glands surgically removed when they found out the wrong diagnosis.

SA Health Minister Jack Snelling explains that the testing kits have a particular chemical used with a sample to enable testing to indicate the marker which tells if the body has cancer. He says SA Pathology was provided a faulty batch, ABC reports.

The wrong diagnosis, which became apparent when patients of Adelaide urologist Peter Sutherland came back with concerning results, led to the firing of Ken Barr, chief executive officer of SA Pathology, 9 News reports. The minister, who was furious that he was not informed of the bungle, says there were be an independent review of the incident.

Despite the bungle, Sutherland says none of his patients went through radiotherapy based on the wrong results, although he does not discount the possibility patients of other doctors could have. He explains that doctors commonly treat the prostate bed area with radiotherapy as another layer of treatment to cure the problem.

The wrong diagnosis is the latest in a series of bungles made by SA Health. Some of the agency’s employees were fired recently for inappropriate access of medical records of patients. In 2015, several patients received inadequate dosages of chemotherapy, while in 2014, SA Pathology was probed for using hidden cameras to spy on its staff.

Snelling notes the presence of some staff in SA Health “who do not believe that they’re accountable to anyone.” He says it is his job as head of SA Health to remove these people from their jobs.