Awanui Labs is consulting APEX and affected staff on a proposal to cease their histology service at the Nelson Laboratory. They propose disestablishing ten positions, and transferring the region’s histology work to their Christchurch lab.
‘This is shocking and upsetting news’, David Munro, Advocacy Lead at APEX remarked today. ‘No-
one saw this coming,’ he continued. ‘To say that we are astonished that the biggest supplier of medical laboratory service in New Zealand would elect to make ten scientists, technicians and admin staff redundant when we have a nationwide shortage of qualified laboratory staff, and a vacancy crisis in many labs, is an understatement.’
APEX will be vigorously opposing this downgrade of the Nelson Hospital lab in our feedback on this proposal. Last year the Nelson lab processed 21,432 histology specimens for 18,048 patients.
‘Suggesting that it will improve service to transport that number of specimens to Christchurch by courier, where they will be processed to provide a digital result to the pathologists back in Nelson, is simply ludicrous.’ said Mr Munro today. ‘How this accords with Te Whatu Ora’s stated objective of providing diagnosis and treatment ‘closer to home’ as it moves to tackle the ‘post-code lottery’ in the health system, is anyone’s guess!’ he continued. ‘The people of Nelson- Marlborough are being let down by this huge private sector business that paid a $42 million dollar dividend to shareholders last year, and which has shared ownership between the NZ Super Fund, a Canadian pension fund and local iwi interests.’
New Zealanders deserve better than this from their health system.