The Laboratory staff of the Tamale Teaching Hospital is on  collision course with management over the outsourcing of the laboratory.

The staff has given management of the hospital a 72-hour ultimatum to halt the policy or face the consequences.

They have threatened to do everything under the law to stop the outsourcing of the labs.

The threat follows an advertisement in the national dailies inviting bids from private entities to manage the laboratories of the Tamale Teaching Hospital.

Some patients are already expressing concerns about intention to outsource the labs of the hospital.

They fear services under an outsourced laboratory will be more expensive but the Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital Dr Prosper Akambom believes otherwise.

He told Joy News Editor Dzifa Bampoh operations at the hospital's labs would rather be affordable if the services are outsourced.

Dr Akambom said it has become necessary to implement this policy because of the heavy losses being incurred by the hospital through laboratory services.

"I can't be putting ¢100,000 and not get anything out of it," the visibly frustrated CEO said.

He reiterated the need to ensure efficiency at the hospital, especially, at the laboratory department.

Consultation?

Staff of the laboratory department are accusing the management of failing to consult them before this decision was taken.

A member of the staff, Patrick Asagba stated no reason was given for the new policy.

"All these discrepancies have come about because none of the stakeholders have been informed," he stated.

But the CEO maintained enough consultation was done.

According to him, his outfit for over one-and-half-years has been liaising with the staff at the laboratory to find a more efficient way of managing the labs.

He stated that the staff were given six months to come up with suggestions as to how to better manage the labs but none of them came up with any idea.

The labs in Tamale must represent the status of the Tamale hospital, he pointed out, adding, he cannot continue running a hospital when patients consistently go across the streets to conduct tests at private labs when there are labs in the hospital.

Dr Akambom said the hospital had to send officials to understudy the new laboratory policy at the Ridge Hospital in Accra and decided to implement that at the Tamale Hospital.

In a reaction, Patrick Asagba told Joy News the new lab policy is bound to fail.

He wondered how management would agree to implement a policy at the Tamale Hospital merely because that policy is being implemented at the Ridge Hospital.

He explained, the Ridge Hospital is only a Regional Hospital with limited responsibility whilst the Tamale Hospital is a referral hospital with a bigger mandate and serves the northern parts of the country.

Instead of outsourcing the services at the laboratory department, Patrick Asagba would rather the labs are resourced with all the logistics needed for a professional job to be done.