UK pathology is moving fast
publication date: Dec 1, 2010
A whole spate of hospitals are tendering out their path labs. Lab groups say the hospitals are driven by fear: “They know that the first movers are likely to be able to hoover up the family doctors who typically make up 50% of any hospital’s lab work. Currently, this business is very much taken for granted but an aggressive operator who goes out and sells higher quality service could wrest 25% of their neighbour’s GP business away in a year, which would be disastrous.”
Answers to two big tenders are due back in March. Meanwhile, Barts issued a tender in the last days of November and Barking and Havering is up for tender. North West London is in the final stages of procurement. And there are rumours that Imperial and Nottingham will come up early in the New Year.
Big operators say they are not impressed by the kit they find when they finally get through the door at the hospital labs. One said: “Almost all the kit is at or past its sell by date.” More worryingly they say that staffing levels in the biggest German plants are a third of the level of UK NHS hospitals. That suggests serious staff cuts.
Foundation trusts face some hard decisions. A joint venture might provide a softer landing, whilst outsourcing might be more of a shock.
And who are the players who are most active? We hear the names are Sonic, Labco through its joint venture with Sodexo and Quest.
