Notification of Industrial Action has been received for a partial withdrawal of services by APEX union members at Awanui Labs Nelson – Marlborough from Thursday 29 May until further notice 2025.

Note: Dates extended from previous notice.

The industrial action will impact referrers and patients as per below:

Microbiology – Nelson and Wairau

• Please limit sending genital swabs for bacterial vaginosis and candidiasis; testing is still available, but capacity is reduced. HPV and STI (Chlamydia, N. gonorrhoea, Trichomonas and Herpes) swabs are not affected.
• Turn-around times will be impacted
• If you have a clinically urgent request, please discuss with our on-call microbiologist.  They can be contacted via AwanuiConnect
• Where possible, treat empirically
• No Gram stains will be processed during this time, except for CSF Gram stains.

Processing – Nelson Only

• Test Adds can only be processed during 0830 – 2000hrs from until further notice. Outside of these hours you will need to request additional tests with a new request and specimen.
• Between the hours of 2000hrs and 0830hrs each day, there will be no one available to answer the phone or respond to emails. If you are a hospital requestor and need to contact the lab, you can send a note via the Lamson or deliver it to the lab.

We thank you once again for your continued understanding and support during this time.