Throughout June and July, the committee reviewed cases. Issues such as morbidity and mortality, length of bypass and cannulation were discussed as they arose in individual cases, but not as separate, overarching topics. The meetings were held once a week in the late afternoon and generally lasted for two hours.

Odim said that during the early period of the committee meetings, there was discussion about ways in which the team could reduce the time spent in the operating room. At the same time he testified that attendance at team functions continued to be, in his opinion, poor.

McNeill felt that as time passed, the relations between team members deteriorated. She was pleased with the success that was being achieved with the low-risk operations, but felt there was growing pressure to move the program back to full service, a move with which she was not completely comfortable. As a result, relations between herself and Giddins and Odim, particularly at committee meetings, were marked by animosity. Giddins and Odim were eager to return to a full-service program, while McNeill resisted. Ullyot said that by a certain point in the committee's proceedings, there was conflict on this issue at nearly every meeting. Ullyot said that for the most part, Wiseman, Kesselman, Maas and Youngson did not participate in these discussions.

Kesselman said that he believed the committee was addressing problems that were situated in the OR.

This is an issue with the surgeons and with the anaesthetists and the nurses there primarily, and that if they can agree that the program should be escalated at this point, for our part, we are able to comply with that and we can manage the patients. And my view really was more from that point of view, that I was willing to go along with that so long as they were able to agree on it. (Evidence, page 34,043)

Wiseman testified that at the outset the committee members clustered themselves into three camps: the surgeon and the cardiologist in one camp; the anaesthetists and the nurse in another; the perfusionist and the intensivist in a third. The last camp was seen to lie between the other two.

Wiseman said that at times he felt there was a need for freer communication on the committee than existed. He also noted that team building could not take place until honest communication took place; without that communication, the team would be built on false pretences. He did not, however, seem to have taken any steps to address this issue.