The three-day strike starting on September 3 threatens to shut down most of the laboratory testing, meaning delays to operations. It will also affect urgent tests for A&E staff, maternity wards and critical care services.<\/p>\n
HSL is a joint partnership between two NHS hospitals in the capital, the Royal Free and University College London (UCLH), and the Doctors Laboratory, a private company.<\/p>\n
The laboratories carry out more than 70 per cent of all the diagnostic blood, skin and tissue testing at hospitals including North Middlesex, Whittington, Ealing, Northwick Park and Barnet. The Royal Free<\/a> is a major trauma centre, treating some of the most seriously injured patients in the capital.<\/p>\n The Royal Free in Hampstead, northwest London<\/p>\n ALAMY<\/p>\n Large private clinics that could be be affected include the Fetal Medicine Centre in Harley Street, Circle Health Group facilities and the Centre for Reproductive and Genetic Health on Great Portland Street. The company also has contracts with private hospitals across England.<\/p>\n The dispute has intensified because some staff are angry about claims that workers employed by HSL are paid up to 27 per cent lower than former NHS staff that have been outsourced to the company. Staff also complain their terms and conditions have been eroded since the work was privatised. <\/p>\n Unite, the union, has also criticised the company for taking on new contracts, with thousands of extra tests a day to be processed despite no increase in staffing or capacity.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, 94 per cent of staff, more than 570, voted for strike action. One worker at the main Halo lab said: \u201cI worry about the degradation of the quality of care that NHS patients will receive because of this constant move to outsource work to private labs.<\/p>\n \u201cLab staff don\u2019t like to speak up and we don\u2019t want to strike but we have a real responsibility to our patients. I have colleagues that are paid \u00a35,000 to \u00a320,000 less a year than they should be. I want real change when it comes to how we\u2019re handling our workload. I want safe staffing so we have the quality of staff to get the work done.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Tom Whipple: Joyful story of how we\u2019re beating cancer will outshine antivaxers<\/a><\/p>\n A biomedical scientist who works at an HSL lab inside an NHS hospital in north London said that at one point this year their lab was receiving 1,500 extra tests after HSL moved work there from the Lister hospital, in Stevenage, without any more staff to help process them.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no consultation, no proper planning,\u201d they said, adding that as a result urgent tests were delayed by days before being sent back to wards.<\/p>\n They said staff were under immense pressure to process routine tests while juggling critically urgent samples from A&E, intensive care and maternity wards. \u201c There\u2019s going to be a lot more patients who are going to be affected if this doesn\u2019t get sorted,\u201d they said. \u201cIt has to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n Unite wants the company to promise to share information about new contracts and increases in work ahead of time and to increase staffing levels to help shortages. It also wants improved pay structures and better conditions around sickness, holiday and training.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/d2c8e0ee-f56c-49d6-8a5c-4fbb06dc509b.jpg\")
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