Routine urine tests on hold in Alberta due to reagent shortage

Albertans who go for routine urine testing are being told to hold off for the time being, due to a shortage of supplies needed to complete the tests.

Alberta Health Services said due to a national shortage of urinalysis reagent, physicians are being asked to delay any non-urgent, routine testing, in order to preserve supply for urgent and emergent cases.

Alberta Precision Laboratories (APL) and Dynalife Medical Labs sent a memo to doctors, nurses, and lab staff last week, saying constrained supply levels of urinalysis reagent used across Canada is now impacting community and outpatient testing throughout Alberta.

“Due to critically low supply, utilization controls are necessary for the foreseeable future,” the memo said. “Only order laboratory urinalysis testing that is required for urgent management of the patient.”

The lab testing memo said requests for routine testing will not be performed and patients may be asked to return at a later date, when possible.

Doctors were asked to postpone routine urinalysis testing that is for health monitoring, where clinically acceptable, and indicate “urgent” on any requisitions where the patient’s concerns can’t wait.

A notice was posted on Dynalife’s website the next day, saying it could not collect routine urinalysis samples until further notice.

Dynalife said on-site staff could help people determine if their collection would be impacted.

The issues have been ongoing for weeks: health-care providers were told in a July 15 memo to limit testing at some hospitals in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and Grande Prairie.

Both Dynalife and AHS said they were working with their supply vendors to secure additional supply of urinalysis reagent and/or instrumentation, as soon as possible.

“AHS will monitor the situation closely and will work with patients directly to discuss options as required and will continue to provide updates as information is available,” a spokesperson said in an email.

Dynalife was unable to provide any different information.

There is no timeline for when the shortage will be resolved.

Dynalife is a private laboratory service that collects blood and other samples for medical testing in large urban centres in the province, while the AHS subsidiary APL provides lab services inside hospitals, as well as in small rural and remote communities.

According to the Alberta government, approximately 65 per cent of provincial lab work — or 50 million tests per year — comes from people in the community going for testing.