New data is revealing the toll COVID-19 has had on some of our critical healthcare workers.
The total medical laboratory workforce has lost more than five percent of its scientists and technicians in just the past 12 months.
Experts say the data should be moving in the opposite direction.
"We're used to our lab workforce growing year on year but now what we're seeing, especially over the past 12 months, is a marked loss of lab workers. So it's way against the trend," APEX national secretary Dr Deborah Powell told Newshub.
"There is only so much people can take. It has been an incredibly stressful two years for them. [There's also] no end in sight, quite frankly, as far as they're concerned. Other options outside of the medical laboratory industry are attractive and quite a few of them are taking it up."
There are now fewer lab workers in our hospitals than there were five years ago. Despite this, workloads for all tests are increasing by around three to five percent per annum.
"The state of our workforce is perilous. Absolutely perilous," Dr Powell said.
"The occasional nod from the podium in the Beehive is all very nice, but when the chips are down and there are thousands of swabs literally coming in the doors and their overtime rates are going up and they're missing their meal breaks .. yeah, they're not feeling very valued,"
Dr Powell said it's concerning that the more experienced workers are leaving.
"The laboratory workforce is an older workforce and so with the stresses of the last couple of years, retirement is becoming an attractive option for many," she told Newshub.
The Institute of Medical Laboratory Science said it's a massive loss.
"Some of these people are taking 30 to 40 years of institutional laboratory knowledge with them and that's a lot of experience we're losing and it's only going to get worse," president Terry Taylor said.
He told Newshub it's a gap in the system that has no quick fix.
"For a medical laboratory scientist just at entry-level, they need four years of undergraduate study followed by 6-12 months of internship," Taylor said.
"We've really got to get stuck in now and put the funding where it should be, so we're ready for the future.
"With the way we're going, in the next five years, we are going to be in serious trouble at the medical laboratory science and technician level."
Dr Powell said although staff are leaving, the demand for services is only getting higher.
On any given day, diagnostic laboratories perform 200,000 tests nationwide. That can include testing blood samples and cancer diagnostics.
"We forget that our laboratory workers don't just do COVID," Dr Powell explained.
The industry said the sector needs urgent future-proofing, including the training and recruitment of new staff.
It's something Taylor said should've been done five years ago.
"If we've lost 5 percent of our workforce in the single biggest year that we've ever had, testing wise, there need to be some major questions asked - and we need the answers as well," Taylor said.
Health Minister Andrew Little issued a one-line response to Newshub when told about the industry's concerns.
"I note the figures, and expect District Health Boards and others to be managing their workforces," he said.
Dr Taylor said it's a major issue that needs attention.
"This is a big warning. The big flashing warning, we are not going to be able to keep up, in any way, if we continue to head the way we're going," she said.
Watch the full story above.
