The Vancouver Island Health Authority is cutting the hours of its medical laboratories and reducing some of the services it offers in Greater Victoria.
VIHA’s South Island labs, which are located at hospitals as well as in Admirals Walk, on Saanich Road, in Brentwood Bay, Keating X Road and Sidney, offer services similar those at the privately operated Lifelabs Medical Laboratory Services, which has 14 locations in Greater Victoria.
Both South Island and LifeLabs accept referrals from doctors, and reducing duplication will make the publicly funded VIHA more efficient, spokeswoman Suzanne Germain said.
While LifeLabs is a business operated to make profits, having medical lab work performed there does not cost patients more.
A review of lab services identified areas of low demand and duplication, Germain said Tuesday.
“We’re decreasing the hours of three satellite lab locations in the afternoon when they only see an average of five to seven patients,” she said.
The VIHA labs at Admirals Walk, Brentwood Bay and Keating X Road will be open 7 a.m. until noon. Anyone wanting VIHA lab services in the afternoon can find them at a nearby hospital, Germain said.
VIHA is also discontinuing a service that saw it go to patients’ homes to collect specimens. LifeLabs offers a similar service, Germain said.
The changes “will allow us to save some resources that we can put into other areas,” Germain said.
Twelve staff will be affected, but they will be offered other lab positions within VIHA, she said.
The cutbacks negatively affect the accessibility and quality of health- care services, said Bonnie Pearson of the Hospital Employees’ Union.
“The B.C. Liberal government says it’s protecting health care, but that’s clearly not what’s happening on the ground,” Pearson said in a statement.
“These cuts will undermine access to outpatient lab services on the south Island, and deprive the health authority of an important revenue source to support other health services.”
