Innovative lab initiative may fall under privatisation

MEDIA STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,
MONDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2015

Innovative Laboratory initiative may fall under the wheels of hospital laboratory privatisation

“Privatising the Wellington and Hutt Valley public hospital laboratories would probably sound the death knell for another, more innovative initiative that district health board chiefs should be considering,” says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS).

“Instead of the obsession they seem to have currently with allowing a private company to run the region’s vital hospital laboratory services, they actually need to look at one of the innovations that appears to have been lost in the DHBs’ headlong rush toward privatisation,” he says.

“The development of a regional shared data repository for information for both hospital and community laboratories offers a lot of potential for patients and clinical staff in the greater Wellington region, and we’re surprised, frankly, that DHBs aren’t doing more homework on this.”

Earlier discussions on the advantages of building a shared data repository had been the only example of genuine clinical engagement in the DHBs’ flawed laboratory review process, but DHB bosses do not seem to have listened to their medical specialists and other clinical staff.

“ASMS members have been saying all along that the region’s public hospital laboratory services are not broken and do not need to be replaced,” says Mr Powell. “They would certainly benefit from improvement, however, and the development of a shared data repository has been identified by clinical staff as something they, and their patients, would greatly benefit from.”

With that in mind, the ASMS asked Drs Anja Werno (Medical Director Microbiology, Canterbury Health Laboratories) and Jeannette McFarlane (Clinical Head, Anatomic Pathology, LabPlus, Auckland Hospital) to identify the questions that DHB chief executives should be asking about the sharing of data.

Their considerations are in the document Data: to share or not to share? This can be found on the ASMS website at http://www.asms.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Data-to-share-or-not-to-share-From-the-experts_163023.pdf. It is also attached.

“The overall conclusion of these external experts is that there are still too many unanswered questions on this important subject. Further, privatising the hospital laboratories in Wellington and Hutt Valley would obstruct achieving the much needed shared data repository.

“We encourage DHB decision-makers to read this document, reflect on the serious concerns raised by senior doctors and others about the process they’re currently embarked on, and bring to a close their privatisation agenda because it lacks clinical and financial sense and it threatens the establishment of the shared data repository.”

ENDS

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