Alberta Premier Danielle Smith suggested that long wait times for medically necessary lab tests provided by private health-care organization DynaLife have led to consumer complaints and could result in changes.
“I’m hearing that all over, that DynaLife has not met performance expectations,” Smith said in response to a caller to her bi-weekly radio show, “Your Province, Your Premier,” on June 10.
In June 2022, under then-Premier Jason Kenney, DynaLife was contracted to take over laboratory testing from Alberta Precision Laboratories, and expanded from its original operations in Edmonton to various cities and towns all over the province. At the time, the government estimated the move would save the province $18 million to $36 million.
Smith said that Alberta Health Services (AHS) administrator Dr. John Cowell and AHS president and CEO Mauro Chies were “working on” the issue, and that Chies “comes from the lab tech world” and understands how the system works.
Chies was formerly CEO and board chair at Alberta Precision Laboratories, and holds certificates and diplomas in medical laboratory science and general radiology.
“Last time we talked about it, they were working with the personnel from Alberta Precision Labs to increase the amount of personnel, increase the amount of tests, but I’m still hearing problems ... it’s work we have to continue doing,” she added.
Smith said the government has “performance expectations” in its contract with DynaLife that they are expected to meet.
“If they don’t, then we can make other arrangements to be able to bring in additional personnel to be able to make sure that we meet those expectations. I hope we don’t have to go to that level. But they need to perform as we’ve expected them to,” the premier said.
DynaLife did not respond to a request for comment, but told Global News on June 13 that, with support from AHS, it “is taking action including actively recruiting additional staff and bringing in staff from other areas of the province and country to help in communities of high demand.”
DynaLife said it had expanded operations at several Calgary labs, created new temporary lab locations, and added weekend services at some locations. The lab company also said it was adding 1,450 appointments per week to help reduce wait times for tests.
Scott Johnson, a spokesman with Alberta Health, told Global the province’s new Health Minister Adriana LaGrange will be looking into the matter.
“As was indicated by Premier Smith, we are focused on improving our healthcare system and AHS has already made some changes to improve the services offered by DynaLife,” Johnston said.
“If improvements aren’t made we’ll explore all options to ensure Albertans receive the services they want and need.”
Smith said the next step in reforming Alberta’s health care will be implementing “a team practice,” which would see doctors working alongside preventative health care workers such as nurse practitioners, dieticians, nutritionists, and licensed practical nurses. She also spoke about investing further in home care and long-term care “so we can keep people in their homes hopefully longer.”
“Those are two major initiatives that we'll be working on in the next four years,” Smith said.
