Lab staff face job uncertainty and rural Albertans could have to wait longer for test results as the province out-sources most lab services to a private company.
A new Parkland Institute report released on Monday questions the huge savings the Alberta government has touted through its privatization plan and its promise of more efficiency with its deal with DynaLIFE Medical Labs to take over much of the testing from Alberta Precision Laboratories (APL).
“The DynaLIFE deal rewards a large corporation and its shareholders over the current and long-term interests of Albertans,” says report author Rebecca Graff-McRae, a research manager at Parkland Institute. “It offers false economies, minimal savings, a smaller and demoralized workforce, a massive infrastructure deficit, and a fragmented system with little accountability.”
The provincial government said last week that no job losses are anticipated when DynaLIFE begins delivering community laboratory services across the province on July 1. Approximately 65 per cent of provincial lab work, or 50 million tests per year, is generated from the community and will be delivered by DynaLIFE under contract to Alberta Health Services.
Graff-McRae said the job assurances leave out some important details.
“The official line on this is that DynaLIFE will be transitioning all the jobs over from APL. In theory, in that initial phase there shouldn’t be any job losses.”
However, in interviewing lab staff, Parkland heard skepticism based on previous privatization moves that workers will be offered the same roles in the same location. That could mean some facilities have fewer staff than previously or positions combined.
“The accounting adds up, but in terms of people’s lives and their livelihoods it might certainly not look the same as it does now.”
In Red Deer, a lot of in-house testing is done and processed on site. Now, some of that testing will be done in Edmonton and Calgary.
How that will affect the staff doing that work is unclear. Will they be shifted to other roles at the hospital or be offered the same positions but elsewhere?
“That’s not confirmed, but when you go through how this process is going to work that seems really likely for the people who have experienced this before. There are no guarantees in any of this.”
In smaller communities, APL will continue to do the testing.
That is likely to lead to unnecessary duplication and involve couriers taking samples to different processing facilities depending on whether they are heading to APL or DynaLIFE.
The reason the previous NDP government tried to streamline that process was to avoid that scenario, she said.
“It might not have been a magic wand, but it reduces that duplication and that confusion.”
Having two testing and processing streams could also create longer wait times for results. Tests may not be headed to the closest facilities or DynaLIFE could choose to “batch” samples, gathering a large number together before sending them for processing to make it more cost effective.
A lab assistant in Central zone told Graff-McRae they were concerned people would have to wait longer for their diagnosis and services outside Edmonton and Calgary could be taken away, further increasing wait lists.
Much of the uncertainty is a result of a lack of consultation with those working in testing labs and processing facilities, she said.
Besides the potential for the changes to prove less efficient than promised, Graff-McRae said the government’s estimates that hundreds of millions will be saved is questionable.
Parkland used FOIP to get financial records from Alberta Health Services and APL that suggested the move could save $18 million to $36 million a year at most, far less than the $102 million in an Ernst and Young performance review of AHS, said Parkland’s report.
Even those savings are created by reduced lab staff wages and benefits, reduced accessibility for patients and automation, it says.