Patients turned away as lab strike continues

THE DA said yesterday thousands of patients at clinics were being “asked to come back later” for tests as the strike by staff at the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) enters its third day. Members of the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union employed at the NHLS embarked on a strike this week to demand higher wages and improved working conditions. While acting head of the NHLS Professor Shabir Madhi has told heads of provincial health departments to outsource “essential tests” to private laboratories, tests for primary health care facilities would not be outsourced. “This means that basic tests typically requested by clinics will only be done after the strike – this includes tests for TB, HIV, CD4 counts, pap smears, sexually transmitted infections, haemoglobin, full blood count, urea and electrolytes, and Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA),” DA Gauteng MPL Jack Bloom said. He warned that a number of patients “will not come back” for these tests which are essential for diagnosis at the primary care level. “Private laboratories are assisting with urgent tests at public hospitals, but they cannot test for certain extremely dangerous diseases like Ebola, Marburg, Rift Valley Fever, Lasso Fever, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever and Dengue,” said Bloom. He said these Level 4 pathogens were the most dangerous known to humans and could only be tested for at the NHLS headquar- ters in Johannesburg, which is the sole Level 4 centre in southern Africa. Travellers can bring in these extreme diseases which are notifiable and need to be rapidly diagnosed. “We hope that none of the highly infectious Level 4 diseases come into the country during the strike.” Bloom said the underlying problem at the NHLS was “severe mismanagement” over a long period of time and the non-payment for services to provincial health departments. “I have established that the total accumulated debt owing to the NHLS is an astounding R7 billion, of which R5bn is owed by Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Some of this debt dates back five years.” – ANA