It seems rather ironic that an anagram of ‘Labtests’ – the name of Auckland’s new community pathology services provider – is ‘Last Bets’.

The controversy surrounding the awarding of the multi-million dollar contract, and problems arising following the transition from former incumbent Diagnostic MedLab, won’t go away, and Labtests is fast running out of goodwill as it struggles to prove it can, indeed, provide the level of service promised for the sums agreed.

Not only is Labtests’ reputation and contract on the line, so too is the reputation of the District Health Boards that awarded Labtests the contract. The DHBs will not be happy at having to send senior medical and management staff into Labtests to try and stop the continued mistakes, and bad news haemorrhaging into the public arena. Read the rest of this entry »