A shortage of medical transcriptionists, the workers who transcribe voice-recorded diagnostic reports, is putting patients in Newfoundland and Labrador at risk, says a St. John's doctor.

Dr. Stephen Major said the current wait time for reports from tests such as X-rays and CT scans from radiologists is about seven weeks, which is too long. Doctors used to get reports in about two weeks, he said, and a timely report can mean the difference between life and death.

"If you add in an extra month there, that could be the time where basically a cancer that might have been curable would become inoperable or a non-curable cancer," Major told CBC News. "So the impact to the patient could be the difference between a cure and not a cure."

Major said a recent review of a radiologist on the province's Burin Peninsula has created a backlog.

The Eastern Health regional authority announced in May that it had suspended a radiologist at the Burin Peninsula Health Care Centre because of internal complaints about the quality of his work, causing about 4,600 records — including X-rays, ultrasounds and CT scans — involving thousands of patients to be reviewed.

Health authority trying to recruit

A spokesman for the health authority said it is doing what it can to clear the backlog of work that needs to be transcribed for family doctors by transcriptionists.

Medical transcriptionists, trained in medical terminology, listen to dictated recordings made by radiologists and other health-care professionals and transcribe them into medical reports.

Dr. Oscar Howell, vice-president of medical services and diagnostics with Eastern Health, said the current seven-week wait time is troubling, and the authority is looking to hire more transcriptionists.

"The delay in getting these reports out is totally unacceptable. As of yesterday, our transcriptionists were typing reports as of July 24. We have to find a solution to this problem and we are working diligently to do that," Howell said. "We are looking within the province, outside the province, wherever we can find those individuals to deal with this backlog." 

Howell told the St. John's Telegram that attempts by the authority to hire more transcriptionists have been unsuccessful, and a temporary transfer of transcriptionists from other departments didn't work because of the specialized skills involved in transcribing radiology reports. Howell also said staff have been working all the overtime they can and have been given the option to work form home in order to process more reports.

Doctors have been asked to prioritize the diagnostic tests they order, so more serious matters are dealt with first. And the board is looking at new, faster, transcribing technology as a long-term solution, Howell said.