Five SA Pathology sites to close, 20 to have hours changed, as part of cost-cutting drive to avoid State Government privatisation threat
SA Pathology centres in five locations across Adelaide will be closed as of September, because they are costing too much and others are nearby.
Five SA Pathology centres will close and a further 20 will have their opening hours shaken up as part of a cost-cutting drive aimed at avoiding a threatened privatisation.
SA Pathology clinical director Tom Dodd last night told staff of the moves, which follow a major review by external consultants that earmarked up to 10 centres for possible closure.
The five to be shut down are at Brighton, Moseley St in Glenelg, Beulah Rd in Norwood, Henley Beach Rd in Torrensville and North Tce.
The sites have been selected because they “cost more to run than is received through bulk billing”. The total saving is expected to be $500,000.
Dr Dodd said they had “very low attendance” and other SA Pathology facilities were within 3km.
Changes to opening hours will include cutbacks at the end of the day after the research confirmed that 75 per cent of all tests are done before 12.30pm.
The closures and changes to opening hours will come into force in September.
Dr Dodd said: “There will be no impact on staffing numbers as all patient services staff currently work on a rotating roster across multiple sites.”
There are 93 SA Pathology collection sites across the state.
The State Government announced in last year’s Budget that it would move to privatise SA Pathology unless it made savings and became as cost efficient as similar services across the country. In the past five years, 10 SA Pathology centres have shut and 23 new ones opened.
Health and Wellbeing Minister Stephen Wade said the Government had been “open and transparent”.
“We have consulted with hundreds of staff and the unions about our short and longer-term plans,” Mr Wade said. “We’ve ruled out privatisation over the next 12 months.
“All of the key stakeholders have acknowledged there are efficiencies that can be made within SA Pathology, while vehemently opposing privatisation. I look forward to working with those stakeholders about how we can make this agency more efficient and deliver better value for the taxpayer dollar.
“SA taxpayers deserve to know they are getting the best value-for-money, highest-quality healthcare.”
Mr Wade said Labor had planned efficiencies in SA Pathology while in power, and was now saying “the direct opposite in opposition”.
Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton said the closure of the five centres was the latest example of a broken promise from Premier Steven Marshall.
“The Premier is holding the threat of privatisation hangs over SA Pathology and cutting services is one more step towards selling this health service off,” he said.
“Five suburbs in Adelaide will be left without local collection centres and many more centres will face reduced hours for local service.
“This is just one part of the government’s plans to take an axe to pathology health services - with the Minister threatening 200 jobs to go.
“And if SA Pathology were to be privatised there’s no doubt we’d see many more job cuts and closures of centres and laboratories across the state.”