Failed Lab Services Privatization Experiment Shows Profits Don’t Belong in Alberta Health Care

CALGARY, Alberta–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Alberta government announced today that medical laboratory services provided by DynaLIFE will be transferred back to Alberta Precision Laboratories (APL), a subsidiary of publicly owned Alberta Health Services (AHS). DynaLIFE’s message to all staff stated, “This transition to AHS will allow resources to be more effectively deployed across the province, enhancing patient care.”
“This is a victory for public health care and a serious indictment of experiments in privatizing our public services,” said CUPE Alberta Division President Rory Gill. “When politicians turn our health care system into a profit-making venture for corporations, they spend as little as possible on front-line services to ensure their shareholders make money. The result is that patient care suffers. Lab services are returning to where they belong—under the umbrella of public health care.”
CUPE Local 8 represents drivers who transport lab samples across southern Alberta for DynaLIFE. These workers have been through multiple changes of employers in recent years, from Calgary Laboratory Services to DynaLIFE to Alberta Public Laboratories (later renamed Alberta Precision Laboratories), back to DynaLIFE again, and now back under APL.
“These drivers are providing a life-saving services to Albertans as they transport vital lab samples across southern Alberta,” said Kelly Spence, President of CUPE Local 8. “They are simply trying to do their jobs, and they don’t deserve the chaos they’ve been put through by the government.”
JF/meaa/COPE 491 Contacts
For more information:
Joel French, CUPE National Communications Representative (acting)
Canadian Union of Public Employees
780-893-9379
jfrench@cupe.ca