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Lab issue under microscope |
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Written by Dave Mabell Lethbridge Herald
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Wednesday, February 17 2010, 8:59 PM |
Ten local pathologists have spoken out against plans to halt life-saving cancer test processing in Lethbridge.
A move to centralize Pap smear and other gynecological cytology work in Calgary and Edmonton will compromise patient safety, they warn — and it won’t save money.
In a letter to newly appointed Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky, the doctors joined voice with colleagues in Red Deer and Edmonton, urging that regional laboratories continue analyzing the tests. Patients and physicians need quick, accurate results from those tests, they pointed out.
Last spring, former health minister Ron Liepert announced private companies in Calgary and Edmonton would take over cytology work handled for many years in Lethbridge and Red Deer. Labs in both cities have state-of-the-art equipment for those tests.
“It has now been almost 12 months since this decision was made and to date, nothing further has happened,” the Lethbridge physicians point out in their letter to the new minister.
If Liepert’s plan proceeds, they add, “we will lose the expertise to make other cytology diagnoses which are essential in an active treatment hospital.”
Letters of professional concern from pathologists in Edmonton, Red Deer and Lethbridge were released Wednesday by Alberta New Democratic Party leader Brian Mason.
“The government should listen to what the professionals are saying,” Mason warned, noting that two-thirds of Alberta’s pathologists signed letters asking Zwozdesky to stay with the present lab system.
“The government’s move to privatize this industry has made a mess of a dependable system,” he added. “Lab testing is an essential service and should not be privatized.”
The Edmonton MLA raised the issue later Wednesday in the legislature, where Zwozdesky promised he’d meet the concerned physicians. Since his appointment early this year, the new health minister has already reversed his predecessor’s decisions to close hospital beds and to reduce the number of surgeries.
The previous minister’s decision, Mason said, would have handed over much of the lab work to Dynalife DX, a private enterprise company in Edmonton. But so far it hasn’t geared up to deal with the added business, he said.
At the same time, he said, government officials have failed to tell lab technicians in Lethbridge and Red Deer hospitals if they’ll be losing their jobs. And they haven’t shown how trucking the test specimens north will lead to cost savings or better service.
Despite the pathologists’ concerns, a government spokesperson in Edmonton said Wednesday there are no plans to maintain present cytology lab services. Tammy Hofer, a vice-president of laboratory services, confirmed no regional cytology labs have closed yet but that’s still the plan. There’s still no time line, however.
In their letter, the Lethbridge pathologists say they’re concerned that the results of Pap tests and the results of subsequent biopsies could end up in different laboratories, where the information systems are incompatible.
“It will be difficult, if not impossible, for pathologists to correlate the results of the Pap tests with the biopsies,” they maintain.
“This will compromise patient care, and may result in additional unnecessary testing or procedures.”
Lethbridge specialists also questioned the logic behind the decision to move the lab work — and the decision-making process itself.
“The reason given was that centralizing gyne cytology would improve the quality of cancer screening services for the women of Alberta by offering liquid-based cytology,” they wrote.
“This was in spite of the fact that Red Deer and Lethbridge do provide liquid-based cytology, and have excellent cytology services.”
At the same time, they noted, the Conservative government’s “request for proposals” included no information about the costs involved in changing a system that worked.
“All laboratories in the province were invited to submit a proposal, but there was a cloud of secrecy about the whole process, and timelines were very short.”
They added, “There was a sense that the decision was made before the RFP process was fairly completed.”
“In fact, then Minister of Health Ron Liepert announced in the legislature prior to the closure of the bid process that services would be going to Calgary and Edmonton.”
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