700 colonoscopies to be redone in Canada

A Canadian doctor's possible failure to check patients' colons from end to end means about 700 are being asked to go through the procedure again, officials say. The incomplete colonoscopies were done at Lakeshore General Hospital in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, between 2009 and 2012, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Wednesday. The decision to ask the patients to have another colonoscopy as a precaution to allay patients' and doctors' concerns was made after a "detailed analysis" by the West Island Health and Social Service Center, which oversees the hospital, said Dr. Richard Germain, chairman of the agency's physicians, dentists and pharmacists committee. The affected patients have been notified by registered mail and are to undergo the new tests on evenings and weekends through mid-December, the CBC said. Officials said the unidentified doctor who carried out the colonoscopies left the hospital in January for unrelated reasons.