Eight local lab workers are fighting back against plans to close their all-female provincial public health laboratory in Sault Ste. Marie.
The city will now write to Health Minister Sylvia Jones and Sault Ste. Marie MPP Ross Romano to try the stop the closure of their laboratory. In the auditor general's report they said multiple times that they are making these recommendations to lessen the inequities in health care for Ontarians. The auditor general report is recommending to close six out of 11 labs. Four of the labs being in the first phase of closing and the SSM lab is one of the labs in the first phase.
For Sault Ste. Marie, there will be a loss of eight full-time female positions of skilled and experienced medical laboratory technologists and lab attendants. COVID is a prime example of how there is a disservice to SSM citizens and the citizens of northern Ontario. People of our community were waiting 10+ days for their COVID results. This could have been avoided if PHO added PCR COVID testing to the SSM lab. There was the experience and expertise in the SSM to run the tests.
PHO is taking the recommendations that the auditor general gave in their report and implementing it in their plan.