KEY POINTS:
Doctors are in the dark about the workload and pay conditions involved with the new medical testing contract, the High Court at Auckland heard yesterday.
Contract winners Labtests Auckland has promised to cut the number of medical collection points from 80 to 43 and staff numbers when it takes over the laboratory contract on July 1. The intention is that individual GP practices will pick up much of the sample-taking workload.
Lawyer Bruce Gray, QC, yesterday criticised the Auckland region's district health boards for failing to consult practitioners about the changes before awarding the $560 million contract to Labtests.
Mr Gray was appearing before Justice Raynor Asher on behalf of Harbour Primary Health Organisation, a group representing medical practitioners in the Waitemata district.
Harbour PHO is supporting Diagnostic Medlab - the incumbent contract holder - in an attempt to have the contract re-tendered.
One of the concerns raised in Harbour submissions was the likelihood of Labtests amalgamating veterinary and human medical testing some time after July 1.
The proposal is understood to have been raised in Labtests' tender proposal, but that document is suppressed due to its commercial sensitivity.
Ross Keenan, who chaired the boards' tender process, said last night that he could not recall any such proposal but admitted it could be in the document.
Auckland District Health Board chairman Wayne Brown said claims of the veterinary/human testing amalgamation were a case of Medlab and Harbour PHO using "any possible thing [they] can think of to make things worse".
Lawyers for the district health boards and Labtests will begin their defence submissions on Monday, with the hearing expected to finish on Friday.
