Medical
diagnostic errors could
rise if Ontario fails to
draft a plan to address
growing shortages of
laboratory professionals
says the Ontario Public
Service Employees Union.
“The
province is sleepwalking
on this issue,” says
Rout, OPSEU 1st
Vice-President.
“Between mergers,
privatization and
funding shortages,
Ontario could soon be in
a similar situation to
Newfoundland.”
A public
inquiry is set to begin
next week to determine
how a Newfoundland lab
incorrectly diagnosed
more than 300 breast
cancer patients. The
inquiry is expected to
hear of high staff
turnover and strained
resources that put
patient’s lives at
jeopardy.
The
Canadian Society for
Medical Laboratory
Science estimates that
43.7 per cent of general
Medical Laboratory
Technologists in Ontario
will be eligible to
retire by 2015 – a rate
than cannot be replaced
through existing
educational programs.
Ontario
has substantially
complicated the
situation by contracting
most of its community
lab work to private
facilities, which are
now in competition for a
declining pool of
technologists.
The
threat of constant
mergers has also
discouraged new
graduates into a
profession where job
security remains elusive
despite the shortages.
The Eastern Ontario
Regional Lab Association
– a project to
amalgamate 16 hospital
labs into a single
entity – recently
released a plan which
calls for reductions in
its workforce.
“Its
time the province
realized the health
system is more than just
doctors and nurses,”
said Rout, herself a
licensed laboratory
technologist.
“Laboratory
professionals are the
third largest medical
occupation in Canada.
While the government has
correctly set a target
of 70 per cent full-time
employment for nurses,
it has set no such
targets for laboratory
technologists, despite
the fact that about half
still face casual and
part-time employment.”
OPSEU is
urging the government to
introduce a plan before
more laboratory
technologists leave both
the public system and
Ontario.
