This week we learn the unfortunate news that community laboratory services will no longer be handled locally.
From now on, all blood work, tissue samples, etc. ordered by family doctors will be shipped to a laboratory in Brampton for testing. This will certainly mean more layoffs at our area hospitals and further deteriorate the ability to provide the full gambit of basic care on-site. 

It will become more difficult to attract health care professionals to the area as very few would want to work in such a volatile environment. The move is also worrisome because, despite strong opposition to removing a health care service provided locally, the pull south grows increasingly stronger as hospital administrators, especially in rural communities, are forced to continually tighten belts. 

The provincial model being touted for delivering community laboratory services is a perfect example of what’s wrong with our health care system. Rather than increasing funding based on the number and complexity of samples processed, hospitals have been forced to consume their global budgets, which meant MAHC was in the red an estimated $150,000 for lab services on an annual basis. 

The rationale in Queen’s Park seems to be that if all testing is centralized in a private laboratory in Brampton, the cost will be kept down as a result of volume. 

But such economies of scale create other problems. They further deteriorate the self-sufficiency of remote communities, take away important jobs in rural areas, and will increase congestion along the Hwy. 11 corridor.
How is adding to traffic by shipping lab samples for testing regularly down the highway sound planning? Will the turnaround time be really as efficient? Will this centralization scheme really save dollars in the long run? What about the bombardment of messages coming out of Queen’s Park asking us to decrease our carbon footprint?  How about leading by example?
With recent hospital restructuring, the removal of services previously covered under OHIP, and now community laboratory testing going south, one can’t help but wonder what the future of community health care holds. 

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