The Union is alarmed that the management at Latrobe Regional Hospital seems to be unwilling to ensure the hospital is able to maintain world-class standards as senior pathology scientists are sacked. As we know pathology is used in the diagnosis of up to 80% of all cases in acute care settings, including cancer and infectious diseases.
The senior scientists have 60 years of combined experience and knowledge that will be lost to the community. The management and board at Latrobe Regional Hospital continue to fail the community by allowing Dorevitch Pathology to keep breaching their contract. And adding insult to injury, the board and management of LRH have gone along with this latest round of sackings in the face of a public review into the handling of the pathology contract at the hospital.
The only reason these scientists will be sacked is to improve Dorevitch’s profits. It seems the LRH Board doesn’t care that healthcare standards in the hospital will decline and that patient welfare will be compromised.
The Latrobe Valley community is going to lose three highly qualified scientists with 60 years combined experience. The real value of this knowledge and experience arises when a very sick patient arrives in the emergency department with a complex condition that needs urgent and accurate diagnosis.
With growing demand for health services in the region and the Hospital expanding with the addition of an oncology unit, it has never been more important for the hospital to have highly qualified and experienced scientists in the pathology laboratory.
It is the Hospital who is playing games with the lives of residents in Latrobe Valley as they allow senior, experienced scientists to be sacked.
The capacity of the LRH pathology laboratory to deliver pathology services at the level necessary to ensure high levels of healthcare for patients is diminished with every cut and redundancy.
The Union has been urging the Victorian Government to step in immediately to stop this demolition of LRH’s pathology service. If the LRH Board won’t put patient safety before Dorevitch Pathology’s profits then the Government must.
