Elizabeth Matthews told the inquiry that the premier's office is frequently put on high alert over an issue, only to be told nothing is actually urgent. (CBC)

The office of Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams did not intervene into a broadening cancer testing crisis for months because staff trusted a health authority to manage it properly, an inquiry was told Tuesday.

As well, Elizabeth Matthews, the director of communications in Williams's office, testified that she cannot remember whether she told Williams about breast cancer testing problems when she first learned of it in July 2005.

Matthews and other officials were first informed about hormone receptor testing problems affecting as many as 1,500 patients on July 19, 2005, by former Department of Health communications director Carolyn Chaplin. Hours later, responding to information from Eastern Health, Chaplin told officials that "no further action" was required.

Matthews, testifying Tuesday at the Cameron inquiry, said she does not remember much about the early days of the cancer testing inquiry, and in fact did not receive what has been called the subsequent "stand down" memo on the testing problems.

Matthews told Justice Margaret Cameron that it was common for the premier's office to be put on high alert on an issue, only to be given different advice later.

"Often, not daily, we'll get a call saying it's a crisis, we need to bring it to your attention, and within an hour, new information comes to light [that shows] the issue is significantly diminished," she said.

"We tend not to run to [Williams's] office every time someone calls with an issue."

Matthews told the inquiry, which is examining how hundreds of flawed breast cancer tests were produced at an Eastern Health lab and how patients and the public were subsequently notified, that she is not sure whether she discussed the issue that day with Williams. The only official item on his agenda during that day was the swearing-in of MHA Clayton Forsey at Government House.

Matthews said that during a more "normal business day" at the office, she would bring such an issue like that to Williams's attention.

Williams has insisted that he did not know about the hormone receptor problems until the public learned about it, after the Independent, a weekly St. John's newspaper, published the first media report on them in October 2005.

Premier's office concerned, director says

Matthews said that the premier's office was mindful of the hormone receptor issue during the subsequent months, but had confidence at the time in the officials who were reviewing what went wrong with estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor (ER/PR) tests.

"The premier's office would not have had reason at that time to intervene in that issue, because we saw it as being appropriately handled by Eastern Health," said Matthews.

"We did not rush into every issue," she said. "On the ER/PR issue in particular, that the premier's office did not get involved in 2005 should not be confused with the premier's office not being concerned about the issue."

Indeed, Matthews said she had personal concerns about the issue, but did not act professionally because she had been given no signals to do so by others.

"It was a tragedy, and it was incredibly unfortunate, and I can't fathom how the patients and their families must have felt about it, but from my perspective — from communications in the premier's office — my concern was always, 'Are the patients being appropriately dealt with?'" she said.

Matthews said the premier's office stood on the sidelines for more than a year, including during a December 2006 set of media briefings in which Eastern Health downplayed the rate of error in the tests.

The inquiry has heard considerable evidence about why Eastern Health decided at that time to release one set of figures about patients involved in the hormone receptor testing problems, while providing another set a few months later in an affidavit filed with a then-pending class-action lawsuit in Newfoundland Supreme Court.

Matthews told the inquiry she still cannot comprehend that decision.

"If you know there are facts you haven't told [journalists] about, that are going to be in the public domain, it makes no sense to me, from a communications standpoint," Matthews said.

"I would never advocate or understand holding something back from the media that you know they are going to find out about," she said. "It destroys confidence."

The issue exploded in May 2007, though, after CBC News reported on court documents showing that Eastern Health was aware the error rate of a large sample of tests was about 42 per cent, and that Eastern Health had withheld much of what it had known.

Matthews said the premier's office intervened at that time, after Health Minister Ross Wiseman called to say that the issue now required the premier's intervention.

"In hindsight," Matthews said, "if we knew everything back then that we know today, perhaps it would have been different … But it's not really reasonable to put that lens on it right now."