RED DEER, ALBERTA, CANADA — The Alberta government is bringing all community lab testing back in-house in the face of long waits and bottlenecks for testing in Calgary and southern Alberta.
Health Minister Adriana LaGrange says the government has reached a deal with the private provider Dynalife to transfer its staff, equipment and property to the province by the end of the year.
LaGrange did not discuss the cost of the deal, saying there is a memorandum of understanding with Dynalife and those details are still being hashed out.
Under the deal, the Dynalife operation will be taken over by Alberta Precision Laboratories, which is part of Alberta Health Services and has been handling more community lab work from Dynalife in recent weeks.
LaGrange says during the transition there will be no impact on Albertans and they will still be able to get their testing done by the same people at the same locations.
The Opposition NDP says the entire affair is a mess of the United Conservative Party government’s making, noting the UCP moved in 2019 to fully privatize community lab services and is now paying to de-privatize them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2023.
The Canadian Press
