DynaLIFE to begin providing community lab services across Alberta July 1

According to AHS, roughly 65 per cent of provincial lab work, or 50 million tests per year, is generated from the community and will be delivered by DynaLIFE.

AHS officials also say the contract will include operating patient service centres and mobile collection facilities in urban centres and large rural communities.

This includes Red Deer, along with Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Fort McMurray, Brooks, Lloydminster, Camrose, Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks, Strathmore, Leduc, Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove, St. Albert, and Stoney Plain.

Authorities say the agreement will also provide upgrades and expansion of patient service centers in Red Deer, along with Edmonton, Calgary, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, and Fort McMurray.

“DynaLIFE has provided high-quality community lab service in Edmonton and several communities in AHS’s North Zone for more than 25 years. They will continue to provide service in these communities and will begin providing lab service in cities and towns across the rest of the province under a new contract that will begin on July 1, 2022. DynaLIFE was selected as the preferred private-sector partner to provide community lab service through a competitive request for proposals process and subsequent negotiations that took place throughout 2021,” said AHS in a release.

The release also stated DynaLIFE will be responsible for laboratory testing of all community and non-urgent hospital lab work across the province.

Hospitals and community health sites that currently handle less than 25,000 community blood test collections per year will continue to be provided by APL. This is to ensure smaller rural and remote communities continue to receive the service they need

Final negotiations for a contract and detailed planning to ensure an orderly transition of staff and facilities from APL to DynaLIFE will now begin.

AHS says no job losses are anticipated as a result of the transition process, as DynaLIFE has agreed to assume all unionized, non-unionized and medical-scientific staff under existing collective agreements (where applicable) and provide the same, or similar, terms and conditions of employment as existing prior to the transfer.

The province says more details will be provided to staff and community stakeholders in the coming weeks and months.

OTHERS NOT HAPPY

Meantime, Friends of Medicare is just one group displeased with the announcement, saying this is just the latest government attack on the health care system.

“This has become a trend for the UCP government. While the pandemic initially slowed their attempts to privatize our health care, they are now wasting no time in selling it off,” says Chris Gallaway, Executive Director. “Albertans need to be assured that their access to health care services won’t be further disrupted by this change. We need to be assured that this won’t lead to another exodus of pathologists like we saw in the 1990s. Rather than transferring Alberta’s public health dollars to private investors, we should learn from the COVID-19 crisis and invest in improving and expanding our public medical laboratory system that has proved so invaluable during this challenging time.”

The Health Sciences Association of Alberta, which represents 28,000 health care workers, says a lot of questions remain unanswered.

“Assurances of no job losses and that lab professionals will continue to be represented by HSAA is good news. For two years now lab workers have been giving their all to protect Albertans during the pandemic while being kept in the dark as the UCP blindly plows ahead with its privatization plans,” says President Mike Parker.

“There are three things we need to know for our members and for Albertans. First, what happens to pensions? Our members in the public system have them, our private members don’t. Our workers without pensions must have the opportunity to get them and those with pensions in place must be assured that they will be kept whole. Second, what exactly is included in this transfer? Albertans and lab professionals deserve to know how lab services will be impacted. Third, how much public money is going to guaranteed profit for DynaLIFEDX? The province must release contract details so Albertans can see how much of their money is going to profits instead of patient care.

Public Interest Alberta also chimed in, with Executive Director Bradley Lafortune saying this is once again putting critical services at risk.

“It’s never responsible, from a service delivery or fiscal point of view, to introduce profit into our healthcare, and when we are facing capacity and stability strains, it’s downright dangerous,” Lafortune says. “This is the wrong approach at the wrong time, and it’s just the latest example of a dangerous trend, from the UCP’s selling off of public housing to the privatization of laundry services.”

NDP Health Critic David Shepherd calls the announcement short-sighted.

“During the course of this pandemic, all Albertans have seen the heroics of our frontline healthcare providers. COVID-19 has underscored Alberta’s need to reinvest in our publicly funded and publicly delivered health care system,” says Shepherd. “Unfortunately, Jason Kenney and the UCP are using the pandemic as an excuse to lay off frontline workers, and further privatize and Americanize our health services.”

by EverythingGP and rdnewsNOW

DynaLIFE to begin providing community lab services across Alberta July 1

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