The firm about to take over Geelong’s leading pathology service has rejected union claims large-scale job losses are planned or that the city’s public and private patients will see their medical tests delayed. Australian Clinical Labs announced last month it was buying out St John of God Pathology, which runs Geelong’s major medical testing laboratory and 35 collection centres in the region. Those sites and 300 workers from the region will be transferred to ACL when the sale is finalised later this year, as will the contract to provide medical testing for public patients treated by Barwon Health. Despite assurances from SJGP that jobs would be protected in the sale, the Medical Scientists Association of Victoria told workers late last month it believed 200 jobs would be at risk within two years of the sale.
