AHS extends Dynalife lab services contract one year
Comes 2 months after health minister ordered AHS to cancel request for proposals on a $3-billion contract
Alberta Health Services has extended its contract with Dynalife Diagnostic Laboratory Services one year.
"This agreement gives confidence to patients and health care providers that this very important health care service will continue without disruption," said AHS CEO Vickie Kaminski in a news release.
The extension, similar in terms and scope as the existing agreement, comes two months after Health Minister Sarah Hoffman ordered AHS to cancel a request for proposals on a $3-billion laboratory contract for Edmonton and parts of northern Alberta.
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Last year Australian company Sonic Healthcare was announced as the preferred vendor for a proposed 15-year contract.
Dynalife, the company that had done much of that lab work for years, launched an appeal of that decision.
The appeal panel found AHS had "breached its duty of fairness" in the request for proposal process in a "substantive" manner, Kaminski said in August.
Dynalife runs northern Alberta's primary testing facility and 27 community sample collections sites in Edmonton and surrounding area, along with five collection sites and four health centre locations in northern and central Alberta.
The current contract is worth just over $130 million annually.