5/3/2013

The President of the Health Sciences Association says he's alarmed by a plan to shut down the microbiology lab at Burnaby General Hospital and have the service centralized elsewhere, possibly in Surrey.

"Are we restructuring health care via calculator, via accounting principals, or are we doing it because it's the best practises for clincal service?"

Reid Johnson says given Burnaby General's history of deadly C-difficle outbreaks, this won't add up to the best care for patients.

"What we have seen in other hospitals where the microbiology lab's ability to test for these things has been taken out of the hospital...there is a time delay, so you don't know how to treat people."

He says Burnaby General Hospital has had 84 or more C-difficile deaths over the last couple of years.

Lower Mainland Labs says they are not shutting down the lab, despite claims from the union.

Executive Director of Pathology Edward Ratnarah says staff are not going to be affected when a portion of the lab is moved to Royal Columbian Hospital.

"We are not shutting down the whole microbiology lab we are only shutting down a portion of it and we are moving just the analytical portion of the testing to Royal Columbian. The consultative services, all the medical staff, they are all remaining, and the staff services that is also remaining at Burnaby hospital."

Ratnarah says consolidation will address problems with an aging work force which is leading to challenges in retaining staff.

The rest is here:
HSA concerned about Burnaby lab closure