Media release from the Ministry of Health

A report released today by the Ministry of Health on its investigation into recent laboratory biopsy errors has highlighted the issues of staff and workload pressures in NZ medical laboratories and their potential effects on quality.

The Ministry convened an expert panel in June to investigate five incidents of patients undergoing unnecessary surgery as a result of errors in the processing or reporting of biopsy specimens occurring over a 2 year period.

The Panel's report cites tight reporting timeframes, workforce pressures in the face of increasing demand and a culture that does not support collaboration between laboratories, including contractual and funding barriers, as factors contributing to increased likelihood of laboratory error.

NZ Medical Laboratory Workers Union president, Stewart Smith, says that the panel's findings reinforce the message that quality in laboratory services must not take a back seat to cost.

"Medical laboratory work has been treated as a commodity by DHB funders of both the hospital and community services. It's an area of healthcare that only draws attention when something goes wrong and these tragic consequences for patients result."

"The panel's findings relate to all areas of medical laboratory work and workforce, not only anatomical pathology departments. We support the report's recommendation that quality initiatives need to take precedence. Regardless of where a specimen is processed it should receive the same high standard of testing, and the funding framework for pathology services needs review."