Te Whatu Ora says discussions are being held to determine which laboratory tests will need to be processed on-site at the new Dunedin Hospital, and which can be done off site. Photo: 123RF
The Dunedin Hospital rebuild is still looking into how to set up its vital pathology laboratories.
Where they go and how much room the services get has been controversial.
Eighty percent of patients require lab tests, so inefficient labs can become a chokepoint at hospitals.
At first, 1300 square metres of space within Dunedin's new hospital was proposed.
But in March the government said it would be just 350sqm, with the rest of the services provided "off site by a commercial provider".
The New Zealand Institute of Medical Laboratory Science (NZIMLS) responded that this was "frankly beyond belief".
It argued that splitting up services was poor practice.
"The pandemic has clearly shown the importance of co-ordinated and effective diagnostic laboratory services," it said.
Now, however, officials say they are talking to the clinicians and service provider about which tests need to be processed in an on-site acute stat lab at Dunedin and what can be done nearby.
"The outcome of this work will inform the updated design," Te Whatu Ora said.
The updated design would be independently reviewed and should be ready by the end of July, it said.
The government had said earlier that providing some services off site was "done in many other hospitals and is also in alignment with the Australasian Health Facilities Guidelines".
Asked by RNZ where Dunedin Hospital fitted in with the guidelines' categories of hospital - large, medium, small - which also indicate what size the pathology labs should be, Te Whatu Ora said those categories were not used in New Zealand.
However, it had used elements of the guidelines to plan Dunedin's labs, it said.
The guidelines stipulate vastly different sizes of pathology lab depending on the hospital category: For a level five large hospital, the lab itself - aside from all the support space - should be 540sqm; whereas a level three small hospital is OK with just 50sqm.
