Labtests opens bases in central suburbs

Labtests is confident problems with its Counties Manukau start-ups will not be repeated. Photo / Greg Bowker

Stage two of the Labtests takeover of the Auckland regional community laboratory contract starts today with the start up of collection centres in the central suburbs and on Waiheke Island.

The new company's 18 collection centres in the Auckland District Health Board's territory are scheduled to open for blood tests at 7am today, except for Orakei, where the weekday opening hours are 8am to 2pm.

Four of the 18 - those in Blockhouse Bay, Greenlane, Mt Roskill and Panmure - are in premises taken over from rival company Diagnostic Medlab (DML) and rebranded at the weekend.

Labtests began the regional takeover a fortnight ago in the Counties Manukau district and will complete it in Waitemata in two weeks' time.

The company won the contract, worth around $70 million a year, from the region's three district health boards in a competitive tender lost by DML, the incumbent provider.

The switch in Counties Manukau was marked by long waits for patients and slow turnarounds on some test results. Labtests' chief executive, Ulf Lindskog, blamed these on teething problems: GPs providing insufficient information on test order forms and the need to adjust staff numbers at some collection centres.

He was confident long delays would not occur with stage two.

"We have flexibility in our staff numbers. We can move staff quickly if we see that's going to be the case."

As required by the health boards, Labtests is reducing the number of collection centres region-wide.

Consequently some patients, including those in parts of Mt Albert and Herne Bay, will have to go further for tests than before.

In the inner city there will be one collection centre, down from three.

* The sites of the new collection centres:

Blockhouse Bay Medical Centre, 3 Heaphy St.

Mt Roskill, 223 Stoddard Rd.

Grey Lynn/Ponsonby, 58 Brown St.

Auckland CBD, Level 2, 280 Queen St.

Mt Eden, 655 Dominion Rd.

Remuera, 126A Remuera Rd.

Epsom/Royal Oak, Greenwood Medical Centre, 641 Manukau Rd.

Mt Wellington, 37-41 Carbine Rd.

Pt Chevalier,1194-1196 Great North Rd.

Onehunga Medical Centre, 73 Church St.

St Heliers, Eastmed Medical Centre, 188 St Heliers Bay Rd.

Panmure Medical Centre, 204 Queens Rd.

Otahuhu, 11 Mason Ave.

Avondale, 57 Rosebank Rd.

Orakei, 230 Kupe St.

Meadowbank. No 24, Meadowbank Shopping Centre, 35 St Johns Rd.

Glen Innes, 161 Line Rd.

Waiheke, 143 Ocean View Rd, Oneroa.