Just in case you were naive enough to think that Diagnostic Medical Laboratories (DML) went to all the trouble of disputing Labtests contract bid because they were worried about patient care, comes this statement in the Herald today.

“The suggestion was made that they [our staff] might be able to have laboratory tours at the Labtests site to get familiar with Labtests and what they are about. Our response was they have plenty of avenues to recruit staff on the web and in newspapers etc, and Labtests would have to rely on that. It was unreasonable for Labtests to have access to our staff.”

Of course DML fail to mention that they have employed the vast majority of medical technicians available and that most of them will be out of a job in September, unless they are hired by Labtests. Labtests quite rightly wish to hire all of DML’s soon to be redundant staff. Refusing to allow that staff to acclimatize to the new labs is just churlish and designed to cause maximum disruption at the handover. 

And just to underline the point that DML doesn’t give a rip about patients there’s this:

DML’s contract ends on September 6; Labtests takes over the next day.

Dr Morris said he was awaiting a letter from the DHBs to explain their intentions for the transition but DML was obliged by its current contract to provide patient materials such as records and stored tissue samples only to a viable laboratory service provider.

He was prepared to enter talks on transferring this, but only once an obviously “full service” existed.

“Up till then, access to staff, the collection network and so on – that’s setting up a laboratory. We have got no legal obligation to help Labtests in getting started from that point of view.”

Seeing as Labtests can only demonstrably be a “full service” laboratory when everything is up and running, expect DML to retain patient records for weeks or even months after the changeover. Maximum disruption is what they want. If the new service is a big enough disaster, it is entirely possible that the DHB may have to contract some work back to DML – at a premium price, of course.

So, hands up all of you doctors who swallowed the DML line that DML’s primary concern was patient care?

Related posts:

1. Penultimatum
2. I Spy
3. Teething Over