A $39,000 fine against the Department of Veterans Affairs was handed down last Monday by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for radiation safety violations at its prostate cancer program at 12 VA hospitals nationwide. This fine comes only months after the VA was fined $277,500 for failures in the prostate Brachytherapy program at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center (see our older post), where numerous veterans received incorrect doses of radiation for over six years. This initial discovery prompted the agency to investigate other VA hospitals using Brachytherapy, a procedure to kill tumor cells with radiation. It's only a matter of time before some of these hospitals start seeing medical malpractice and negligence suits due to these findings.
The fines against the VA stem primarily from two violations. The first concerns the VA's Brachytherapy program's lack of procedures to ensure the implants followed a preoperative plan. The second was levied for failure to notify the NRC within 24 hours of a failed procedure. The NRC believes "these violations should have been identified by the VA during their own independent inspections."
During this procedure [Prostate Brachytherapy], dozens of tiny radioactive seeds are implanted into the acorn-sized gland in order to kill cancer cells over several months. In the Philadelphia cases reference above, 97 out of 114 veterans treated with this procedure received improper doses between February 2002 and June 2008, when the program was finally closed.
NRC officials believe that the VA's program was flawed from the beginning and "doctors and officials repeatedly missed chances to fix it."
Source: Philly.com "NRC fines VA $39,000 over radiation violations in prostate cancer programs" 08/24/2010
