Hamilton Health Sciences fought to keep a smaller local forensic pathology program, appealing all the way up to the deputy solicitor general.

The Spectator has learned that hospital leaders made a last-ditch ptich Aug. 26 to Mario Di Tommaso, deputy minister of community safety, to stop the Hamilton Regional Forensic Pathology Unit (HRFPU) from shutting down and its more than 1,300 death investigations a year moved to Toronto.

"We would ask that rather than completely closing the HRFPU, a small forensic pathology service be maintained that has approximately 500 cases per year," wrote Dr. Michael Stacey and Dr. Marek Smieja.

While HHS has said little publicly, documents recently released under freedom of information (FOI) and obtained by The Spectator show the battle to keep death investigations and funding in Hamilton after Ontario's chief coroner Dr. Dirk Huyer and chief forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Pollanen decided to shut the unit down by July, 2020.

The heavily redacted documents reveal Huyer and Pollanen originally withdrew all of the unit's funding in June, 2019, despite expecting it to continue doing hundreds of death investigations for more than one year while also clearing up an extensive backlog of cases.

The documents also briefly hint at the controversy around Huyer and Pollanen closing the unit at the same time the Death Investigation Oversight Council (DIOC) was investigating a complaint against them lodged by a former director of the HRFPU.

Staff found out about the closure July 4 — days after some of them testified about the complaint. HHS took particular issue with them having to apply for jobs in Toronto.

"You ... note that the pathologists from the unit have appeared as witnesses before the complaints committee in relation to a proceeding about Dr. Pollanen and Dr. Huyer," Di Tommaso states in an Aug. 16 letter to Stacey and Smieja.

The closure of the HRFPU is significant because it has the potential to affect the budget of the Hamilton Police Service, the timing of homicide investigations, the strain on grieving families and training at McMaster University, which will become the only medical school in Ontario without a forensic pathology unit.

"We oppose the decision," wrote Rick Badzioch, vice-president of clinical programs at St. Joseph's Healthcare, in an email June 15 to other local hospital leaders. "Part of the argument back is to flag that this could have a significant impact locally."

The ministry of the solicitor general has tried to defuse suspicion around the timing by saying the decision was made in the fall of 2018, long before Dr. Jane Turner made her complaint in March 2019 and the DIOC started investigating Huyer and Pollanen.

But Pollanen has made statements to The Spectator that conflict with that timeline and the newly released FOI documents show HHS was told about the closure June 14.

The death of former unit director Dr. John Fernandes on April 18 was also revealed as a major catalyst.

Fernandes is credited in the documents as doing the work of two forensic pathologists, so when he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and went on emergency sick leave in November, 2018, it left the unit at Hamilton General Hospital significantly strained.

A month later, Pollanen redirected the autopsy of Hamilton teen stabbing victim Joshua Leo to Toronto, which Det. Sgt. Peter Thom said hampered the homicide investigation.

The FOI documents show it also raised alarm in Hamilton with leaders of the laboratory operations sending Pollanen an email Dec. 11, 2018, that stated, "The redirection of cases works against the fostering of the collegial environment we are all striving for. It also hampers the appropriate allocation of resources for our community partners, upsets victims' families with delays, and impedes on our regional education mandate for trainees in the areas of medical and law enforcement."

In May, HHS asked Pollanen to provide a short term secondment of an experienced pathologist while it recruited two new staff. The documents show HHS was struggling to hire pathologists with a potential recruit going to Toronto.

Instead, HHS was blindsided when Pollanen and Huyer announced they were shutting down the unit with half of the cases going to Toronto in July 2019 and the rest a year later.

A briefing note dated June 21 says they cited "concerns with workload, quality, and risk issues."

Making it worse, Pollanen and Huyer said they would no longer pay HHS because they had not met their obligations.

"This leaves the HRFPU in an unviable financial position," states the briefing note. "We asked them to reconsider the withholding of payments citing that their decision will only cause further hard feelings and resentment, recognizing that we are still continuing to do the work."

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HHS eventually secured funding for the unit until it closes, but its pitch to keep death investigations was rejected.

jfrketich@thespec.com

905-526-3349 | @Jfrketich