Urgent Need for Patient-Centred Lab Reform in Ontario
The Ontario Coalition for Lab Reform is a group comprised of smaller owner-operated community laboratories, non-profit organizations, doctors, patient groups, allied service providers and concerned patients and patient groups who want to see a modern, patient-centred medical laboratory system established in Ontario.
The project was initiated by smaller family-owned labs Alpha and Bio-Test and not-for-profit In-Common Laboratories. The goal of the project is to convince the Government of Ontario to modernize our community lab system by doing the following:
- Establish public transparency and stronger oversight of Ontario’s medical laboratory services. Ontario needs a Lab Commissioner.
- Enable the adoption of new tests and evaluation of best practices in test utilization and reporting of results.
- Provide a modernized governance and payment model for lab services to promote innovation and improvements to patient service.
- Improve access and timeliness of tests, particularly for patients in rural and remote communities.
- Embrace non-profit service providers and community hospitals as partners in the delivery of laboratory testing as they are in other provinces.
- Improve efficiency, integrating testing service between hospitals, public health and community labs.
We are asking patient groups to lend their support to these principles by signing the declaration in support of Lab Reform. We would also like to indicate this support by posting the organization’s logo on our website under the heading “Patients for Reform”.