Doctors and nurses have protested outside Auckland Hospital over a health board decision to ditch the city's major laboratory provider.
They say the dumping of Diagnostic Medlab in favour of an Australian firm could see patients' health suffer. Auckland's three DHBs opted for Labtests Auckland which undercut Medlab by $15 million.
The group of about 200 protested outside as a meeting of the district health board took place inside the building. They say the board is saving money at the cost of the health of the public.
Protesters delivered a petition, signed by 100,000 Aucklanders, calling for the decision to be overturned. Protester Matt Crockett says Aucklanders enjoy a world class pathology health service and don't want to see that put at risk.
And critics fear Labtests won't be ready to handle 30,000 test results a day come next July.
Diagnostic Medlab Pathologist Richard Lloyd says this is a huge risk to the people of Auckland.
"We have absolutely no example of how many pathologists they have, how many technical staff they have, how may scientists they have," says Dr Lloyd.
Many diagnostic staff such as pathologist Edward Theakston say they won't work for Labtests. He told One News he would "probably rather look for jobs overseas".
But DHB chairman Wayne Brown is unmoved and says critics need to get over it.
"They can either work for the new company or...drive a taxi," says Brown.
He says patient safety is not an issue.
"Two tenders were received and one was recommended as being better value and offering a better service and we accepted that and life moves on."
Diagnostic Medlab is seeking a judicial review of the decision.
