June 22, 2009
Media Release
For Immediate Release
Diagnostic Medlab to continue a service in Auckland
Diagnostic Medlab will continue a commercial presence in Auckland beyond September 7 after being directed to stop
providing community referred services as it currently holds the National Cervical Screening Programme contract for the
region and a number of other private contracts.
The ARDHBs have directed DML to stop collection, processing and providing results on community referred work in the
Counties Manukau DHB area at midnight on August 9. The new provider will take over community laboratory services for the
Counties Manukau DHB area from August 10 followed by the Auckland DHB area from August 24, then Waitemata DHB area from
September 7.
“The DHBs have guaranteed that this will be a safe transition to their new provider. DML has done all it can to
safeguard the interests of Auckland patients. We have met, and will continue to meet, all our contractual obligations to
the DHBs and our ethical obligations to our GPs and their patients,” comments DML chief executive Arthur Morris.
“If problems arise with this contract Aucklanders will have to live with the consequences for the next eight to ten
years. We still hold serious concerns as to how this new contract, which is on such a large scale, will succeed,” he
comments.
“We are cooperating with the high level transition plan that the DHBs have directed us to follow. Any DML staff who wish
to resign to take up training with the new provider have been able to when required. So far, the vast majority of our
staff have chosen to stay with us,” says Dr Morris.
He says that DML will not lay off staff as a result of the changeover in the Counties Manukau DHB area as they will be
redeployed on other work and will fill current vacancies.
“We still need people to fulfil the remainder of contract we have until September 7,” says Dr Morris.
Additional background
Community laboratories play an important role in New Zealand primary health care, providing the medical analysis of
fluid and tissue samples that allow GPs to diagnose specific conditions and prescribe the correct treatment with the aim
of keeping people out of hospitals.
Diagnostic Medlab provides community laboratory services to the greater Auckland region. It employs 750 skilled staff
including 36 highly trained pathologists. Within the workforce 42 nationalities are represented.
Over 300 staff work in the community based Collection Services area collecting specimens from the public with another
400 staff based at Diagnostic Medlab’s Ellerslie laboratory where they carry out more than 35,000 tests for around
10,000 Aucklanders every day. The laboratory is one of the biggest and most modern of its kind in the Southern
Hemisphere.
ENDS