Less effective diagnostics this summer in medical laboratories, fears a union

The Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services (APTS) considers that the lack of medical technologists could lead to slower and less effective diagnoses during the summer.

Across Quebec, the Professional Order of Medical Technologists of Quebec (OPTMQ) is planning a summer season catastrophic in the Optilab laboratories.

The president of theOPTMQLoan Luu, explains that during this period, employee vacations put increased pressure on already reduced teams.

There are no graduates, there is a lack of new recruits and there is a lack of regular staff, so imagine the summer when it is very criticalshe says.

The Optilab network was created in 2017 by the provincial government, to bring together laboratories from hospital centers across Quebec. For Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Côte-Nord and Nord-du-Québec, it is the main laboratory, located in Chicoutimi, which mainly receives the samples.

Impacts in remote regions

The national representative of theAPTS for the North Shore, Kevin Newbury, indicates that approximately 90 medical technologists practice in the eight medical laboratories on the North Shore, but does not know the number necessary to optimize the service.

He believes that north-coastal analyzes of laboratory samples, which often take place in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean by Optilab, must be decentralized as soon as possible to improve care in the region.

We ask our health professionals to make boxes with samples to send them to the server laboratories, created by Optilab.

But sometimes these laboratories are unable to process the quantity [d’échantillons à analyser]. These boxes are kept in refrigerators, which creates additional delayscontinues Mr. Newbury.

In small laboratories where between two and five workers work, an absence, retirement or resignation is certainly felt.he adds.

We have great fear about the future of our laboratories. We are the opposite of the Optilab project. We want to bring this closer to the population. When we have a doctor who tells us that we need a blood test, we need to have quick and easy accesshe says.

Kevin Newbury also took part in a day of reflection in Quebec on Monday on the future of medical laboratories. No government representatives took part.

A desired assessment of Optilab

The president of theOPTMQLoan Luu, wishes to obtain data from Optilab laboratories to take stock of their performance.

If we really want to properly analyze the effectiveness of Optilab, which is the centralization of laboratory analyses, we will have to take stockshe declares.

Ms. Luu indicates that her professional order asks Optilab laboratories to obtain data on their performance.

We are asking for data to see where the problem is. Is this a transport delay? Is this the rejection rate. Quality indicators must be analyzedshe specifies.

For its part, Optilab responsible for the Côte-Nord region considers that at least eight new medical technologists are needed in the region. to reduce pressure on current teams.

The Optilab Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean-Côte-Nord-Nord-du-Québec cluster is concerned about recruitment in remote regionsdeclares the organization in writing.

Optilab declares that all efforts are deployed to maintain services in place.