
There's a call on hospitals to employ more medical scientists in their laboratories.
Two representative bodies, the Academy of Clinical Science and Laboratory Medicine and the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association, say the pandemic has brought the recruitment and retention crisis into sharp focus.
While only 5 percent of hospital budgets are dedicated to medical scientists, but it's claimed lab results end up informing 70 percent of clinical decisions.
Dr. Bridgid Lucey, President of the Academy of Clinical Science & Laboratory Medicine, says a new centralised IT system is also badly needed to help with Covid-19 testing:
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