An independent review into how two sets of babies were switched at birth in Newfoundland and Labrador would shed light on how mistakes were made and what can be learned from them, said the co-author of a 2017 clinical review into infant misidentification.

“It could also answer questions that the families have and deserve to have answered, regardless of the passage of time,” said Maura Davies, also a former CEO and president of the Saskatoon Health Region, now residing in Halifax and Charlottetown. “In many cases, practices have changed very significantly, but hopefully there’s still opportunities to learn.”

Ms. Davies is a co-author of Health Canada’s 2017 clinical review into two cases of infant misidentification that occurred in Manitoba in 1975. That independent review found the switches were accidental and a result of not following standard identification procedures.

Despite the precedent in Manitoba, the Newfoundland and Labrador government has so far refused to review how two sets of babies were switched at birth at two different provincially run cottage hospitals in rural Newfoundland in the 1960s or publicly apologize to families for the life-altering mistake. A…