Stop the removal of essential lab services in rural Heartland Regional Health Authority locations

It has come to the attention of residents living under the Heartland Regional Health Authority that lab services in rural health centers are being "restructured". This includes specifically blood analysis thus far. In a recent newspaper article it is stated that "Any changes that we would make would be completely invisible to the patient," and that "In fact, they will receive better service."

After discussing the matter with an undisclosed Heartland employee it was confirmed, in my opinion, that the preceding two statements will be deemed false. In my particular community the wait times for blood analysis results may, in some cases, go from minutes in the previous structure to several hours (up to 24 or more) in certain cases under the new "restructuring".

In the article that outlines the changes it also states that "The number-one priority for these are quality and safety", but at no point is the quality and safety of the current structure called into question. It is of my opinion that this is a fiscal matter for the health region and that the loss of services to some of the "low volume" centers is an action driven by the health region's budget. While I cannot know for certain, I question whether any of the people making this decision live in one of the "smaller centres". I suspect not.

We must not lose these essential health services in our communities. Our local governments must band together to stop the removal of these services. Please lobby them to do something. Unless we band together we will not be able to make a difference.