By paNOW

Lab techs say understaffing could impact patients

Jun 28, 2017 | 3:33 PM

The union representing 874 medical technologists and technicians in Saskatchewan said understaffing and increased workloads could compromise patient care.

In a report released Monday, the CUPE Saskatchewan Health Care Council say 82 per cent of medical technicians surveyed said their workload has increased substantially over the last five years. So much so that almost 42 per cent of workers put in between 50 minutes and two-and-a-half hours of unpaid work just to turn out test results. Only 7.3 per cent said they were able to complete all their tasks for the day “all of the time.”

“This is jeopardizing patient care,” Holley Hermann, a laboratory technician said. “If people can’t get test results in a timely manner, patient care suffers and that is against the government’s goal of ‘patient first.’”

She called on the government to direct additional funding towards regional health authorities to address the staffing requirements needed to provide quality patient care. Hermann said lab techs are “doing their best” to meet demands but felt the government “does not seem to be helping us.”

Over half of those surveyed said the increase in their workload was in part due to employers not backfilling leaves and vacant positions. It also said requiring techs to work on-call was limiting their ability for two days off in a row. The report showed while the number of doctors in the province have increased by 44 per cent in the last 10 years, the number of lab techs has actually decreased by 7.2 per cent since 2012.

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When technicians are forced to work longer hours, under intense pressure and with increased requests for service, Hermann said this can lead to a greater chance for mistakes. 

“As technologists and technicians, we know that patients rely on our results and therefore you just do what you have to do to get that work done,” she said.

Hermann also did not feel the impending amalgamation of health regions in the province would improve anything. Rather, she believed it may actually take services away from rural communities, extending wait times for results.

“When you no longer have services in say Oxbow, that blood test has to go to Regina to get tested and the doctor is not going to be able to make a timely diagnosis,” Hermann explained.

Besides the additional funding, the report also called on the ministry to conduct an audit of vacancies in the field. 

Duane Mombourquette, the executive director of partnerships and workforce planning with the Ministry, said these issues were on the radar and were to be taken seriously. He said recruitment can be challenging in Saskatchewan, more so for remote or rural locations. 

“When vacancies do occur…it does indeed prove a challenge to recruit people,” he said.

Mombourquette said the problems presented in the report are “not easy to overcome.” The ministry, he said, works hard to address them such as adjusting training capacity at post-secondary institutions in the province. Recently Saskatchewan Polytechnic has added 12 new training seats for medical laboratory technicians so they can increase the number of new graduates entering the province.

“Again, sometimes it is just really challenging to do and often it is not a supply issue it is a recruitment issue,” he said.

He said this, alongside ensuring rural residents are not negatively impacted after the health region amalgamation, will continue to be a priority into the future.

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr