Albany Western Diagnostics lab closes after four decades, Healius says it remains ‘committed’ to city

Western Diagnostic closed its Albany-based pathology lab at the end of March after more than four decades of conducting vital tests for the community. The pathology service continues to operate as a collection point but has discontinued lab services, which will affect community members and medical professionals who relied on the service’s quick turnaround for same-day test results. Western Diagnostic’s parent company Healius informed staff it had decided to close the lab in mid-March. A week later, it conducted its final tests, with all collections made at Albany Western Diagnostic locations to be transferred to Perth for testing. Employees directly affected by the closure were offered redeployment opportunities within Western Diagnostic, Healius said. Healius chief executive Paul Anderson said the company knew how important pathology was to regional areas and it remained “committed to servicing these communities”. “Our pathology collection services in Albany will remain unchanged,” he said. “Pathology is a critical part of the nation’s health infrastructure, and both patients and GPs depend on it to make vital healthcare decisions every day.” A report commissioned by Healius and released in March called for greater levels of Federal Government investment to support pathology services. The Protecting Pathology Services And Jobs report indicates that many of Australia’s regional and rural collection centres are not profitable. Operated by the State Government out of Albany Regional Hospital, Pathwest is the city’s only remaining pathology lab processing tests. Its Albany lab is also supported by the public provider’s main lab at QEII Medical Centre. A Pathwest spokesman said the public provider “was unaware until very recently” about Western Diagnostic’s planned changes to its Albany service. “Independent of this, however, PathWest has been investigating additional collection centre locations in the Albany area and additional hours of operation of the PathWest laboratory to service the growing demand for pathology services in Albany,” he said.