Unilabs is commissioned to perform some laboratory diagnostics for the Stockholm region. But the company has failed to comply with the agreement regarding certain test responses on, among other things, skin changes in time, which Dagens Nyheter was the first to report.

According to the magazine, patients have had to wait months for test answers and x-rays for serious illnesses such as suspected malignant melanoma and other types of cancer.

Now the Healthcare Administration is strongly criticizing Unilabs.

- The health care administration takes the situation very seriously. I understand that some patients have had to wait unreasonably long for their test answers. It is completely unsustainable, says Health and Medical Director Björn Eriksson in a press release on Region Stockholm's website.

"Our internal process should have worked better"

Already in June, caregivers in various parts of the health care administration began to point out that waiting times increased. Despite this, the Director of Health has not been aware of the overall picture until the latter part of August.

- I can conclude that when we receive signals of such serious shortcomings, our internal process should work better, says Björn Eriksson.

An external review of the course of events should now be requested to investigate the procurement and what created these problems.

Unilab has hired extra staff to catch up

In a press release, Unilabs deplores the delayed test replies and explains that all priority test replies have been delivered on time, but the so-called standard tests which are to be assessed within two weeks have instead taken up to eight weeks to assess.

- We really regret that people have had to wait longer than they should for their test answers. We look very seriously at delays that can affect the course of the disease and cause concern. We have hired additional staff to have the capacity to assess all samples within the time set, says Charlotta Wikström, Sweden's Head of Pathology and Radiology at Unilabs.

With staff augmentation, Unilabs will handle the remaining 6,000 samples and is expected to complete the analyzes within four weeks.