DynaLife appealing award of $3B lab contract to Sonic Healthcare

DynaLife is asking Alberta Premier Jim Prentice and Health Minister Stephen Mandel to intervene in a recent decision to award a $3 billion lab contract to Sonic Healthcare.

Last month, Alberta Health Services announced that Sonic, an Australian company, was the health authority’s preferred provider for a 15-year contract to provide hospital and private lab services in Edmonton.

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DynaLife, the current lab provider, also bid on the contract. The company is appealing the AHS decision.

CEO Jason Pincock says DynaLife will cease to exist without the AHS contract. He says mistakes were made in the tendering process.

“Originally AHS designed a process, and then that process changed as we went through it,” he said.

“And it would appear that those changes had significant impact on Dynalife's ability to be successful.”

AHS president and CEO Vickie Kaminski said that DynaLife has the right to appeal the decision but she believes the process was followed correctly.

“We are confident the RFP process was conducted in a fair and transparent manner with all proponents being treated equally, and that the robust RFP evaluation and selection process has resulted in the selection of the best quality laboratory service solution for Albertans,” she said in a statement.

Kaminiski said that lab services will continue as usual throughout the appeal.

The current contract with DynaLife expires in 2016.

Sonic is expected to provide private lab services as well as replace hospital labs run by AHS and Covenant Health in Edmonton.