Labtests transition details kept secret

Labtests Auckland's plan on how it will take over medical testing for Auckland's 1.3 million people will be kept secret because of fears it could be used to disrupt the transition.

The Herald sought a copy of the implementation plan and milestone dates from Auckland's three district health boards.

Under a contract costing taxpayers around $70 million a year, Labtests is due to take over community testing from Diagnostic Medlab on September 7.

The board's laboratory project director, Tim Wood, "reluctantly" declined the request, made under the Official Information Act, on grounds that publishing the material was likely to prejudice Labtests commercially.

The Herald has appealed to the Chief Ombudsman.

"... there is significant commercial sensitivity around a variety of details in the plan and there is a potential for the information to be used by third parties to potentially disrupt the implementation and transition process," Mr Wood said.

"Disclosure of some of the details could also reveal commercially sensitive information about the operational activities of Labtests that may be relevant to other locations in which they operate or may operate in the future."

The Auckland, Waitemata and Counties Manukau health boards were monitoring the implementation, Mr Wood said. They could take a number of steps if they had reasonable grounds to believe Labtests would not be ready to start on time, but had not had any reason to trigger this contractual provision.

Labtests indicated that it would not release the plan either, for the reasons explained by Mr Wood. Its chief executive, Ulf Lindskog, said yesterday his company was "very comfortable with our progress towards transition and are tracking well in line with the implementation plans".

All heads of departments and key staff were on board.

Labtests liaison officers were visiting medical practices and would visit all clinics in the region.

Susan Turner, chief executive of Harbour Health, a primary health organisation, has also sought the implementation plan. It should be made public, she said, because the transition was so important and raised many questions, particularly about the risks involved.

"What are the risks, how are they mitigating those risks, what are the plans to deliver the end result by the 7th of September and how are they going in relation to that plan?"

She said Harbour Health's medical director was on an advisory group overseeing the implementation for the DHBs, but was prevented from sharing confidential information about it with her.