From thestar.com
Ontario’s largest medical laboratory company is shedding more than 100 staff and closing the doors of 15 patient service centres that collect and process patient samples such as blood and urine.
Toronto-based LifeLabs announced last week its plan to also reduce hours of operations at 53 other collection sites. Laboratory testing facilities in Thorold, London and Ottawa — where samples are analyzed — will close.
“While these kinds of operational decisions are never easy, we believe they are necessary,” LifeLabs CEO Sue Paish wrote on the company’s website. Most of the closures will take place in March and April.
In an interview with the Star, Paish said the changes are part of an efficiency effort to cope with mounting costs, cutbacks in government funds and a higher volume of patients.
“The demand for testing has increased but the funding has not,” she said, adding the company performs 5.5 per cent more tests than it did three years ago. Further, she said, LifeLab’s competitors are also cutting back.
The private company manages hundreds of medical laboratories in Ontario and British Columbia. According to its website, it performs more than 75 million clinical tests in Ontario alone each year.
The announcements come less than three years after the company’s $1.2 billion takeover of Mississauga-based CML Healthcare Inc. in 2013. The merger gave LifeLabs a major foothold in Ontario’s outpatient lab testing market.
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