Wellington Laboratories Decision Defies Belief

MEDIA STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,
MONDAY 9 MARCH 2015

Wellington Laboratories Decision Defies Belief

“The decision by the three Wellington region district health boards to continue their attempt to put public hospital laboratories in the hands of a private company defies belief,” says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS).

“The DHB Boards appear to have forged ahead with their pre-determined path despite strong clinical opposition, a lack of robust financial analysis, and the Health Minister’s own advice to hospital bosses to listen to their clinical staff. What planet are they on?”

Mr Powell says the plan to contract Southern Community Laboratories Ltd (SCL – owned by the controversy ridden Australian company Healthscope) with running the public hospital laboratories remains subject to the agreement of Health Minister Jonathan Coleman.

“This whole process has been flawed from the start. They have turned up their noses to Dr Coleman. He told medical specialists at the ASMS annual conference last year that he expected hospital bosses to listen to them over this issue. Instead they have ignored him.”

A survey of senior doctors employed by the Hutt Valley and Capital & Coast DHBs has shown they are overwhelmingly opposed to the outsourcing of their public hospital laboratories: http://www.asms.org.nz/news/asms-news/2015/02/18/wellington-hutt-senior-doctors-overwhelmingly-oppose-privatisation-public-hospital-laboratories/

Hospital pathologists have written to the Health Minister and Boards urging them of the risks of this proposal and urging them not to make such a massive mistake.

A recent Official Information Act request by the ASMS, to the DHBs, for the financial analysis underpinning the outsourcing proposal being considered by their Boards, highlighted the absence of any good evidence: http://www.asms.org.nz/news/asms-news/2015/03/02/gobsmacking-lack-robust-financial-analysis-dhbs-flawed-laboratories-proposal/

Earlier in the process, one of the two companies bidding to run the hospital laboratory services, Abano Healthcare, expressed concern that the DHBs’ proposal would put the region’s laboratory services at risk: http://www.asms.org.nz/news/other-news/2015/02/03/abano-healthcare-says-dhbs-putting-wellington-laboratory-pathology-services-risk/

This was supported by the ASMS’ own analysis of the proposal and likely clinical risks: http://www.asms.org.nz/news/asms-news/2014/11/21/privatisation-hospital-laboratories/

“On the one hand we have the weight of real world experience and expertise – the voices of medical specialists and other health professionals saying that this is a daft idea,” says Mr Powell. “On the other hand we have a bunch of hospital bosses waving their magic wands and hoping for the planets to align.

“The Health Minister needs to look very closely at the competence of those in charge of these DHBs. They are compromising patient safety and increasing financial risk.”

ENDS

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