It was a routine check that Sheryl Parkin had obtained many instances earlier than in Alberta.
“I used to be right here for lab work and an EKG,” she mentioned, referring to an electrocardiogram check, through which sensors (electrodes) are hooked up to the chest and limbs to assist detect heart-related situations.
Individuals should take away their clothes from the waist down for the process, and are normally given a hospital robe.
However throughout a current go to to a Calgary lab, Parkin was confronted with what she described as an “uncomfortable” new process.
“The lab tech advised me that they now not supply paper robes to sufferers for this check. And that I’d merely have a sheet of paper to cowl myself,” Parkin mentioned. “It felt undignified and it actually offended my modesty as an individual.
“I actually felt that it was a step too far.”
Final 12 months, Alberta Well being Companies contracted DynaLIFE Medical Labs to take over group lab service, making it liable for 50 million exams a 12 months.
DynaLIFE has already supplied lab providers in Edmonton and several other communities within the AHS North zone for greater than 25 years, however the brand new contract noticed the lab supplier increase to extra cities and cities throughout the remainder of the province.
The contract consists of working affected person service and cell assortment facilities in main communities together with Calgary, Edmonton, Purple Deer, Lethbridge, Drugs Hat, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie, Brooks, Lloydminster, Camrose, Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks, Strathmore, Leduc , Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove, St. Albert and Stony Plain.
Learn extra:
DynaLIFE contracts with AHS to supply group lab providers throughout Alberta
Because the transition started, complaints have piled up from sufferers describing challenges accessing providers resembling blood exams.
“My daughter has to have blood work performed each three months due to her remedy,” mentioned Paula Wallace after delays she skilled throughout a current go to to an Airdrie DynaLIFE clinic.
Her daughter has a number of sclerosis (MS).
“We’re at a loss as to how we’ll do it each three months, sitting in a ready room for therefore lengthy.”
Sufferers International Information spoke to exterior a clinic in southwest Calgary on Wednesday echoed her issues. They spoke of ready instances of greater than two hours, even for scheduled appointments.
“There is a three-hour watch for walk-ins,” mentioned Jeff Vangeel, a diabetes affected person whose physician prompt he are available for blood work.
“I requested, ‘Perhaps I ought to come again at three (p.m.)?’ He mentioned, ‘No, then we’re on skeleton workers’. So he prompt that I come at seven within the morning after which I’d be capable to get in throughout the subsequent hour or so.”
DynaLIFE says it’s increasing clinic hours and hiring further workers in Calgary as it really works to open further clinics this summer season.
Learn extra:
Alberta extends contract with non-public lab DynaLIFE to open extra facilities
As a part of its personal assertion, Alberta Well being Companies mentioned high quality and wait time metrics are intently monitored and “the place wait instances aren’t met, ongoing discussions are ongoing.”
AHS deferred International Information to DynaLIFE relating to procedures and requirements for presenting drapes and/or paper sheets to sufferers.
DynaLIFE mentioned, “[W]e makes use of a single-use disposable blanket for EKGs in Calgary. This is similar product used all through Edmonton and the North in addition to in lots of physician’s places of work, however it’s completely different from what was beforehand utilized in Calgary.
“We’ve now recognized sources in Calgary to supply a single-use disposable robe and it will likely be out there to be used in Calgary by subsequent week.”
That is welcome information for individuals like Parkin, decided to see the brand new clinics preserve care.
“I imagine they’re doing much less for the affected person’s dignity and modesty in mild of the truth that their backside line might be getting higher as a result of individuals aren’t speaking.”
AHS mentioned final 12 months that to make sure small, rural and distant communities proceed to obtain the service they want, smaller hospitals and group well being websites that at the moment deal with fewer than 25,000 group blood check collections per 12 months will proceed to be supplied by Alberta Precision Laboratories ( APL).
APL will even proceed to supply laboratory providers inside acute care hospitals, together with specialised laboratory testing, analysis and innovation important to Alberta’s provincial laboratory system.
– With information from Karen Bartko, International Information
© 2023 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
