Gripes against Labtests continue

The Health and Disability Commissioner says complaints against Labtest continue to come in. Photo / Dean Purcell

Complaints against Labtests have continued to roll in after the country's leading health watchdog made his concerns public.

"We have continued to receive a significant number of complaints," Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson said yesterday.

In last Saturday's Weekend Herald, he revealed he had received 13 complaints about the troubled Auckland community pathology service and he was concerned about the potential risk to public safety. He had asked the region's district health boards to explain what actions they were taking to address the problems.

The complaints included long waits at blood test collection centres, delays in returning results to doctors and tests having to be re-done because blood had been put in the wrong kind of tube.

By Monday, the DHBs had sent in a troubleshooting team comprising seven of their own senior staff to take control of safety and quality assurance at Labtests. Senior managers and doctors from Labtests' Australian parent, Healthscope, have taken over the running of the Auckland operation, including the job of chief executive, vacated by Ulf Lindskog.

Healthscope has acknowledged problems with Labtests, including its failure to adequately build relationships with clinicians who order blood tests, but says it is working to overcome them. "There is a very robust and responsive process in place here ... to deal with any issues coming in regarding the service," Healthscope says.

A number of GPs had told Labtests they had no issues with its service, Healthscope said.

A GP leader from North and West Auckland, Dr Lannes Johnson, said he and his colleagues had not experienced the reported problems with Labtests.

Labtests' rival, Diagnostic Medlab, which lost the community contract let by the DHBs, said this week more than 300 patients a week were choosing to come to it for blood tests, which cost them $7 to $20 and which they could have for no charge at Labtests.

DML said, "The prospect of long waits and slow results seemed to be encouraging more Aucklanders to pay for their own tests."

But Labtests said this was a tiny fraction of the up to 70,000 patients who came to it each week.