The Blame Game Doesn’t Achieve Anything Constructive, Says Terry Taylor, President Of The NZIMLS

The recent press on the overestimation of COVID-PCR forecast numbers that laboratories could perform has deflected from the very human issues that our laboratory staff are currently experiencing. As the NZIMLS have said, predictive numbers mean nothing because our staff must deal with real time demand for our diagnostic services.

To see both sides of parliament hurling arguments and counter claims trying to find a scapegoat is not acceptable in a time of crisis for our health system. As the NZIMLS has said many times, we are yet to see the perfect person who has never made an error of judgement. Our plea is for everyone to learn from this experience and ensure that this doesn’t happen again. This is all our beleaguered hard working frontline workers ask for. Laboratory scientists are not numbers, we are walking, talking breathing people who face stress and difficulty just like everyone else.

To get a heartfelt apology from the Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield meant a lot to our frontline workers who were hanging out for any shred of hope of acknowledgement that this situation was not theirs or the laboratory’s fault. Ultimately the fault is down to many of us not just one person, department or Ministry. I stand alongside the Director General and the relevant Ministers and say I could too have stopped this in it’s tracks if I had acted more proactively.

‘I look back and acknowledge that instead of thinking that the expectation for testing was just plain wrong and someone would obviously see and act, I should of gone straight to Ashley Bloomfield and Ayesha Verrall ’, says Terry Taylor the president of the New Zealand Institute of Medical Science (NZIMLS).

‘How often in life have we relied on ‘someone else’ to see the things that we think are so blatantly obvious’, says Taylor.

‘Dr Bloomfield has incidentally always been a strong supporter of the NZIMLS and promoter of the essential role we have in the health and disability system’, says Taylor.

This is not about scapegoating people but a way of learning and ensuring these situations do not occur again. Omicron has devastated laboratory systems worldwide and we are not immune in any way to that here in Aotearoa New Zealand.

My plea is for those who experienced the feeling of hopelessness that comes from being put in a difficult situation are respected and offered the support they will clearly need. Our diagnostic laboratory staff have always maintained their absolute professionalism despite this trying situation we are currently working through.

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