planned closure<\/a> of the LifeLabs laboratory in Sudbury, where medical samples taken at LifeLabs centres throughout the region are tested.<\/p>\nThe closure will put 40 technologists out of work and require time-sensitive samples collected locally to be tested in laboratories in Mississauga and Toronto.<\/p>\n
Whether it\u2019s due to highway closures or flight delays, Clelland said it\u2019s inevitable that there will be delays in getting local test results which will have a trickle down effect on health care.<\/p>\n
Some people who require immediate results might clog up the emergency department at Health Sciences North, she said, while others will face other hardships such as re-testing when samples spoil due to delays in transportation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people may drive an hour or more to get their blood collected,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re sick, they need their results, they need their diagnosis, they need their treatment. Delaying that is not going to do any good.\u201d<\/p>\n
During Thursday\u2019s meeting, Don Valley East Liberal MPP Adil Shamji, who is also a medical doctor, said it\u2019s hard enough to get some people in for blood testing the first time around. If samples time out due to delays and the patient needs to return to deliver a sample again, he said they might forgo medical testing altogether.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe north has always been treated differently,\u201d Clelland said, adding that LifeLabs would never dream of closing down a laboratory in southern Ontario as they\u2019ve planned on doing in Sudbury.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they do move forward with closing all of these community labs, then they need to invest in labs elsewhere,\u201d Clelland said. \u201cThey need to invest in the hospital labs, because these tests need to be performed.<\/p>\n
Of medical diagnoses, she said 70 per cent are based on lab results.<\/p>\n
As such, she added, \u201cYou limit the number of labs, you\u2019re limiting health care.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the ensuing discussion, Nickel Belt NDP MPP France G\u00e9linas argued that the local lab\u2019s closure became a possibility when the government privatized the service.<\/p>\n
LifeLabs was subsequently sold to an American company, she said, \u201cWho made it clear that there\u2019s more money to be made by closing the site in Sudbury and moving it to Toronto for the only reason, to maximize their profit, not to help us.\u201d<\/p>\n
On this front, Ontario Federation of Labour president Laura Walton noted that even when privatization takes place, the province can add safeguards to protect services to a degree.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re using taxpayer dollars that are going to LifeLabs to perform these tests, and because LifeLabs doesn’t feel like they\u2019re getting enough money, they\u2019re going to take the service away,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The province should impose requirements on companies such as LifeLabs, she said, describing some provisions which could have prevented the local laborator\u2019s closure as: \u201cYou must provide services in the north, you must ensure that we are using Ontario workers to get this work done. We must be ensuring that we\u2019re giving back to the communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Progressive Conservative MPPs were largely mum on the LifeLabs closure, apart from Peterborough\u2014Kawartha MPP Dave Smith accusing opposition members of hypocrisy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find it interesting that you\u2019re now advocating that you need to keep LifeLabs open here in Sudbury when, at Queen\u2019s Park, they\u2019re advocating that we need to close down those facilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho\u2019s saying that?\u201d Sudbury NDP MPP Jamie West said before being silenced for speaking out of turn.<\/p>\n
Given that both West and G\u00e9linas have been outspoken advocates <\/a>in Queen\u2019s Park for keeping the Sudbury LifeLabs laboratory open since the impending closure was brought to their attention in December, Sudbury.com asked Smith for more context during a break in meetings.<\/p>\n\u201cTheir policy at Queen\u2019s Park is that we need to be closing all of the privately owned clinics, whether it\u2019s a laboratory clinic or a doctor-owned surgery clinic,\u201d he said, adding that there\u2019s a \u201cdisconnect\u201d between this and calling for LifeLabs to remain open.<\/p>\n
These comments are “nonsensical,” West told Sudbury.com, describing Smith as deploying \u201cstrawman nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are times for partisan call-outs, but this is an important issue,\u201d West said. \u201cAs a party, we\u2019re not in favour of privatizing health care and making it more expensive for fewer services, that\u2019s true, but we\u2019re not in favour of no services.\u201d<\/p>\n
On this front, he added, \u201cWe\u2019d rather have a private system than no system at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although she spoke to the LifeLabs issue when asked about it, Clelland\u2019s chief reason for attending Thursday\u2019s meeting was to advocate for $6 million over three years to hire 130 preceptors to train 1,300 students to alleviate a demand for medical laboratory technologists, assistants and technician training across the province, \u201cespecially in rural and northern labs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LifeLabs\u2019 decision to close their Sudbury laboratory will harm patient care, a Medical Laboratory Professionals Association of Ontario…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-266055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}