Technologists at Eastern Health's pathology lab weren't told there was a problem with breast cancer testing, according to testimony at the Cameron inquiry in St. John's Wednesday.

The inquiry, headed by Justice Margaret Cameron, is investigating how hundreds of breast cancer patients received faulty hormone receptor test results between 1997 and 2005.

In the summer of 2005, senior lab managers and administrators at Eastern Health, Newfoundland and Labrador's largest health authority, decided to stop doing the hormone receptor tests at the health authority, because it was clear there were sample quality issues, and incorrect results coming from the lab.

The authority began sending all the breast cancer tissue samples to Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto for retesting.

However, at the inquiry Wednesday, retired lab technologist Les Simms testified that no one told the technologists, who did the tests, what was going on.

Inquiry lawyer Sandra Chaytor, asked Simms what sort of communications he had received about the plan to stop testing.

"How was the communication with you from Eastern Health regarding the issue?" Chaytor asked.

"Communication with me personally from Eastern Health on what was happening?" Simms asked.

"Yes," Chaytor said.

"There was no communication," Simms said.

Officials at Eastern Health did send a memo to lab technologists late in the summer, saying that the reporting of hormone receptor tests by pathologists was on hold.

Simms said the memo did not explain the reason why, and he and the other technologists continued with their work of preparing tissue samples on slides.

Simms said when he heard about the magnitude of the problems when the story broke in the media in 2006, he was shocked.

"You know, if people are ... reassessing work that was done by us, then why weren't we informed of it in the beginning?" he said.

Even after the media began focusing on problems at the lab, Simms said Eastern Health management never consulted the technologists about what was going on.

Simms said they continued their work as usual.