Alberta Health Services (AHS) and DynaLife have agreed to a memorandum of understanding to ensure the lab company transfers all of its staff, operations, and locations to Alberta Precision Labs (APL) by the end of 2023. .“This will bring immediate and consistent support throughout the province,” said Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange at a Friday press conference. .“Everyone will work together to plan for a successful and smooth transition of lab services to APL to stabilize our lab system.” .LaGrange called this change “necessary to make sure Albertans can get their lab work done when and where they need it and get timely results.”.She said she knows Albertans will be wondering what this means for them. .In this case, she said there will be no significant change to how Albertans access lab services. They will continue to go to the same facilities they go to today, book appointments through the same system, existing appointments will not be impacted and see the same frontline staff. .There will be no job losses for frontline lab workers. But for Albertans who need lab work done, this means faster access to high-quality care. .LaGrange said she is confident APL will be able to deliver on her expectations of improving lab service delivery across Alberta. It handles lab work for hospitals and urgent care centres and does community lab tests in rural areas. .AHS is working with APL to open up more community lab appointments. She said this is “great news and should have an immediate impact on increasing available appointments and decreasing the time folks must wait to get an appointment.” .It is hiring more staff to have the people power to decrease wait times. It will be working with other partners to open a new community patient service centre this fall. .The Alberta government will be assessing how lab services are performing over the coming months and will continue to explore long-term solutions to improve the system for years to come..LaGrange said her job is to come up with solutions for real change so Albertans can get the healthcare they need when and where they need it. .Alberta Premier Danielle Smith asked her in her mandate letter to fix lab service delays in the short and long term. She said these moves are a big step forward in fixing the healthcare system. .As part of the long-term solution, LaGrange said she will be addressing the procurement, contracting and reviewing process for lab service delivery in Alberta. This includes setting requirements for details in contracts and appropriate due diligence. .“Albertans deserve to get world-class healthcare that is responsive to their needs,” she said. .The Alberta government said on August 3 thousands of new community lab appointments are being made available for Albertans..READ MORE: UCP will try and break lab backlog through hospital appointments.The appointments — which will be made mainly through hospitals — are designed to help reduce the wait times to access lab services. .“It is unacceptable that Albertans are facing constant delays to get a simple test or blood work done,” said Smith.
