First health district switches to Labtests

Labtests chief Ulf Lindskog and some of the company's technicians prepare their Mt Wellington base for the first of up to 9000 pathology tests expected today. Photo / Dean Purcell

Around 3000 Aucklanders will today become the first patients of the region's highly contested switch to a new provider of community laboratory testing.

Counties Manukau is the first of Auckland's three health districts to change from Diagnostic Medlab to the new company, Labtests.

Community patients having blood tests or providing other samples in the Counties Manukau area now have to go to Labtests' collection centres rather than to DML's.

This is the case even if they live in central Auckland or Waitemata and are given a DML order form.

Labtests took over in Counties Manukau from midnight last night, but patients are unlikely to notice until they visit a doctor, are given a Labtests order form and are directed to one of the company's collection centres.

Weeks of testing and staff training will be put into action today when Labtests' central laboratory at Carbine Rd, Mt Wellington, goes live and analyses an estimated 8000 to 9000 samples for markers of disease.

"The team is all ready; we are raring to go," said Leanne Giles, head of the laboratory's department of anatomical pathology, who shifted to Labtests from DML in April.

"We have been working towards this for such a long time now. We just want some real samples to deal with."

Ads have been placed in newspapers and Labtests' sites are listed at DML collection centres and on pads for GPs to tear off for patients.

"We are trying to make this as painless for the clinicians and patients as we can," said Labtests chief executive Ulf Lindskog.

In 2006, Labtests pipped DML for the community testing contract awarded by the region's three health boards. The boards said the $560 million, eight-year contract would save $15 million a year.

The boards promised the same level of service although they were determined to force a reduction in the number of collection rooms, irrespective of which of the two Australian Stock Exchange-listed lab giants won.

DML's 80 collection centres (including 21 in Counties Manukau) shrink to 56 under Labtests (including 16 in Counties Manukau), although a lease-transfer problem has so far prevented the new service provider from opening one in Chapel Downs.

Labtests' collections will begin in central Auckland on August 24 and in Waitemata on September 7.

Mr Lindskog said Labtests currently had around 500 staff - all that were needed for the Counties Manukau load - and this would rise to 650 to 700 by the time it was serving the whole region. Around 35 staff had come from sister labs in the South Island and Australia to help with the transition.

The Labtests contract was overturned by the High Court on the challenge of DML, but was last year reinstated by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court rejected DML's bid for a further appeal.

The pathology world and financial specialists are watching the Auckland switch carefully.

The High Court was told by a Canadian expert witness for DML that the rapid start-up of a new lab and transfer of 30,000 tests a day constituted a unique experiment.

* Counties Manukau collection centres:

110 Michael Jones Drive, Botany.
301 Botany Rd, Botany.

Chapel Downs, call 0508 LABTESTS for location details.

Clendon Medical Centre, 15 Palmers Rd, Clendon.

9 Main Rd, Clevedon.

46 Wellington St, Howick.

29 Cape Rd, Mangere.

18 Wiri Station Rd, Manukau.

161 Great South Rd, Manurewa.

Shop 6, Otara Town Centre, 120 East Tamaki Rd, Otara.

2 William Roberts Rd, Pakuranga.

132A Great South Rd, Papakura.

119 Kolmar Rd, Papatoetoe.

10 West St, Pukekohe.

55 George St, Tuakau.

92 Queen St, Waiuku.