Tansy Mundon said she was frequently frustrated while trying to obtain information from Eastern Health. (CBC)

The authority at the centre of Newfoundland and Labrador's breast cancer testing problems provided little information to government in the year leading up to public disclosure of testing errors, an inquiry has been told.

Tansy Mundon took over as director of communications in the Department of Health and Community Services in October 2005, but was able to glean little information about hormone receptor problems from then until controversial media briefings in December 2006.

At that time, Eastern Health briefed journalists on treatment changes for more than 100 breast cancer patients who had received inaccurate results. However, the authority withheld full data on the hormone receptor tests, including a rate of error of about 42 per cent, or several times higher than what the authority revealed.

Mundon said after news broke of the testing problems in October 2005, Eastern Health's then director of communications downplayed their significance.

Mundon said Susan Bonnell left her with the impression that mistakes were not very serious.

"Certainly I don't recall from my conversation with Ms. Bonnell [that there was] a big red flag waved here as to this being a major, major issue," she said.

"I think it would've been downplayed significantly in my conversation at that early stage."

Mundon, in fact, was told that the issue was limited to cancer patients in St. John's, even though she had been given materials that indicated Eastern Health was dealing with test samples from patients across Newfoundland and Labrador.

Stymied in getting information

Relations did not improve between Bonnell — who has already testified at the Cameron inquiry about her role in how results were communicated to patients and the public — and Mundon in the months that followed.

Mundon testified that Eastern Health communications official Susan Bonnell, above, was 'defensive' about government queries. (CBC)

Indeed, Mundon said she was stymied when former health ministers John Ottenheimer and Tom Osborne asked for information about Eastern Health, and she was unable to get it.

Mundon testified that her dealings with Bonnell, whom she described as "defensive," were unique, in that she did not have problems with officials at the other three regional health authorities.

Mundon said Bonnell may have been only trying to work in the environment created by others.

"It was frustrating on my part, and perhaps on her part as well, just because of the fact that she had the clear understanding from her organization that they would be managing their own operational issues," Mundon said.

At the same time, Mundon was made to feel that her queries were not welcome.

"I sensed that that may have been her perception of it, that, you know, that she was handling the issue from the communications perspective and really why was I involving myself in it?" Mundon said.

Learned of other complaints

Mundon said she was not alone. Journalists had been complaining about troubles getting information from Eastern Health. Mundon took her views to her bosses, and also expressed her frustrations to staff in the premier's office.

Last week, Elizabeth Matthews, communications director in the premier's office, told Justice Margaret Cameron that Mundon's complaints about Eastern Health's unhelpfulness had preceded the bombshell disclosures in May 2007 about Eastern Health withholding information about breast cancer testing errors.

Mundon said other issues piled up in the weeks leading up to the December 2006 release of cancer test results.

When Mundon received an e-mail from Bonnell that contained critical remarks about cancer advocate Peter Dawe — Bonnell wrote that Dawe was using an olive branch offered by Eastern Health to whip the organization — Mundon said she did not address it with Bonnell, as Bonnell did not report to her.

However, Mundon took her general complaints to others in the Department of Health, and a meeting was held to clear the air over how communications between Eastern Health — which operates at arm's length from the government — and health department officials.

"At the end of the meeting, did you find that it was useful in addressing your concerns?" inquiry co-counsel Sandra Chaytor asked.

"No, I did not," Mundon replied.

Mundon is scheduled to return to the stand on Tuesday.

The inquiry has already been told that information presented to Osborne at a briefing in November 2006 was less complete than a briefing sent earlier to Premier Danny Williams, but significantly more detailed than what was publicly released weeks later.

Cameron began hearing evidence in March on two key issues: what went wrong with hormone receptor testing in a St. John's pathology lab between 1997 and 2005, and then how communications were handled once the problems were detected.