KEY POINTS:
Hospital patients are in increased danger of serious complications from being given more drugs than usual while laboratory workers are on strike.
And cancer patients whose surgery has been postponed face the prospect of their disease spreading.
Hospitals generally said they coped well yesterday on the first day of the seven-day strike by 1200 members of the Medical Laboratory Workers Union.
But doctors said they were concerned for the welfare of patients.
Auckland City Hospital's chief medical officer, Dr David Sage, said the hospital's laboratory service was running at 10 per cent of its usual capacity, relying on non-union staff and some union members.
"We've got a very basic service that can service our acute, life-threatening problems."
But as many patients had to be admitted without the usual tests, diagnoses were less precise, so doctors had to prescribe more antibiotics or other drugs than usual.
This boosted the chances of bad reactions, and patients were likely to spend longer in hospital.
"We are taking greater risks," Dr Sage said. "We are concerned about patient safety overall, but with life-threatening conditions we expect to be able to deal with those with the union agreements [to assist]."
He was also concerned about the delays for cancer patients. Some would have a long wait for rescheduled surgery, increasing their anxiety "and possibly progression of their disease".
The strike is disrupting the supply of blood products and the testing of blood and other samples from patients.
The strike affects 13 district health boards, three private laboratories and the Blood Service.
The lab union is the fourth health union to walk out this year - after junior doctors, radiographers and radiation therapists - and its strike is considered the biggest threat to the most patients because virtually every hospital patient has lab tests, for diagnosis and to monitor treatment.
It has led to elective surgery being postponed for more than 1000 patients.
Cancer patient Jenny Short, 57, was to have a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction yesterday at the Manukau Super Clinic. The strike has delayed the operation 14 days.
"It is hard not to wonder what is spreading because of the wait," she said.
Mrs Short's 62-year-old husband, Rod, had removal of a tumour at North Shore Hospital delayed for three weeks by the junior doctors' strike in June.
She had sympathy for the laboratory workers and the employers, but said it was wrong to use patients as pawns in pay disputes. "There should be a better way of settling them."
Medical Council chairman Professor John Campbell agreed.
"We need to look at other systems used for essential services. Ways of compulsory arbitration need to be explored ... "
But health unions are wary of this, and when one health board this month called for a ban on health-worker strikes, Health Minister Pete Hodgson said he was comfortable with existing industrial relations legislation.
Last night, he would not respond to Professor Campbell's comments.
No talks between the union and employers occurred yesterday and none are planned.
