Eastern Health CEO Vickie Kaminski, the head of Newfoundland and Labrador's largest health authority, showed concern about the way the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's was administering the drug cyclosporine and said she should have been informed about the happenings earlier.

According to Kaminski some of the hospital's patients might have gotten the wrong dose of the drug and this was known to her 11 days after a nurse warned the staff about the problem.

She said, "I think we should have known sooner. And certainly, that's what we will look at. Was it reasonable for us to know that sooner? And if so, why not? Why weren't we told?"

Reports say that for suppressing the immune system, cyclosporine is used. It is also used to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients.

A nurse told the St. John's staff in early February that she was concerned about the doses of cyclosporine being given to patients.

According to a patient review, about 234 patients had received cyclosporine in nine months. Nine months back the hospital had started using a new machine for testing levels of the drug in a patient's blood. Halifax is testing the bloodwork of those patients again.