Medical scientists have 'no alternative' but to take industrial action

Frustrations over now near 20 year battle for pay parity and career development

“This is the last place we want to be, but something has to change,” is the sentiment shared by Bríain McDonald, union representative with the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association (MLSA) at Cavan General Hospital (CGH).

Bríain is one of close to a dozen medical scientists at Cavan General picketing outside the hospital's gates on Wednesday morning (May 18), highlighting a range of worsening issues affecting the profession.

During the height of the pandemic, as a senior medical scientist at CGH, Bríain found himself working seven days a week at the hospital's lab. Like others across the country, the facility came under sustained pressure to rapidly deliver Covid results on top of their daily workload.

The demand came against a backdrop of short-staffing- there are as many as four vacancies at Cavan General not to mention difficulties in providing for maternity cover. That's before factoring in frustrations over a near 20-year battle for pay parity and career development under the microscope.

There are 40 medical scientists employed at CGH, with around 2,200 working nationally, of which 1,800 work in the public sector. It is only the second time in the sector's 60-year history that industrial action had been taken.

Bríain meanwhile estimates the workload for some colleagues in Cavan has almost doubled in recent years, increasing from processing some 60,000 samples a year to around 120,000.

Today’s planned industrial action involves the withdrawal of routine laboratory services from 8am to 8pm, affecting routine hospital and GP services across the country.

An agreement is in place so that patients requiring urgent medical care will not be affected by the strike action, however some scheduled cases will face curtailment.

“Our role is 365 days a year, very much 24/7, so our role is integral to the healthcare system. We've been fighting this for so long and I think with people's frustration over Covid, everything has just come to a head now,” says Bríain. “Over Covid, myself alone I was working seven days a week for 18 months because I didn't have anybody backing me. The last six months things have gotten better but, still, with Covid testing, and while it's rapid, we have Covid results within 30 minutes, there are still massive implications in that everyone who comes in has to be tested. It put a huge increase on our existing workload. I know micro-biology alone, they went from processing between 60,000 to 70,000 tests in a year to last year doing 120,000. So the workload has nearly doubled in two to three years, yet when you're deficient in workforce number and have a long-running dispute over pay as we have, it's only compounding the problem.”

The strike action by lab scientists follows many rounds of unsuccessful talks with the HSE, Department of Health, Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Public Service Agreement Group.

The Medical Laboratory Scientists Association (MLSA) says every effort has been made to avoid today’s disruption to patients and fellow healthcare workers, but that lab workers has been left with “no alternative”.

A further two days of action are planned for May 24-25, and if there is no progress made, three more days of action are planned for May 31, June 1 and June 2.

The union states that almost one in five approved medical scientist posts are unfilled in public hospitals, while medical scientists carry out identical work to other colleagues in hospital laboratories, yet are paid on average 8% less. In some cases medical laboratory aides, who report to medical scientists, start on a higher salary.

“It is not sustainable to continue like this. We need an effective work structure for this profession, which can secure and retain the staffing levels required,” says MLSA chairperson Kevin O’Boyle. “Resolving these issues will benefit patients and the efficiency of health services they receive.”