New Zealand Institute of Medical Laboratory Science president Tony Barnett said he understood the delay in reporting histology results was due to a pathology staff shortage — a situation that would take time to address.
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) Southern’s contracted pathology provider Awanui Labs confirmed a delay but said yesterday it expected turnaround times would be back to normal in the coming weeks.
Neither Awanui nor HNZ would specify what the current and previous turnaround times were.
Mr Barnett said the team in Otago was attempting to help out other areas of the country by doing some of their work.
Given the skill shortages in other parts of the country, it could be a long-term situation, he said
"Anybody that has capacity is doing what they can.
"There are shortages in Wellington and there are definitely shortages in Auckland."
As with all areas of laboratory work, it was not an area where people could start straight away, and the institute had alerted the Ministry of Health to the shortage previously.
"There's a fairly high level of training that goes on in those areas.
"Getting through that work is going to take time."
The health system needed to maximise university placements and try to grow the workforce to address the shortage, although this could take a couple of years.
A triage process was likely in place to make sure the most urgent cases were seen, Mr Barnett said.
A statement provided to the Otago Daily Times by Awanui said the Dunedin Hospital histology department was experiencing a delay in reporting times compared to January.
It was a nationwide issue, the statement said.
"We are coming off the back of several public holiday periods where people have been on extended leave, as well as supporting other providers in the country with their histology work for quite some time.
"These together have been contributing factors we are working through and managing.
"Our team in Dunedin are advising referrers of the expected delays and we’re keeping HNZ informed."
HNZ Southern group director of operations Hamish Brown said Awanui had informed HNZ of the delay.
HNZ was asked three times in the last week about the extent of the delays and the implications for patients, but had not answered these questions by deadline yesterday.
