Santa Cruz County may cut Lab and radiology services, extension for services voted until September

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION) - Santa Cruz County supervisors voted unanimously to extend those services until September 30th. It would cost $129,000

"There's a reason why we have county workers serving the public in the capacity that we do. It's because we care about our patients. It's not just a job, it's a way of life," said Jeff Zajak, Senior lab assistant for Santa Cruz County Health Services

Jeff has been with Santa Cruz Health Services for the last 8 years, working as a senior lab assistant.

But that may soon come to an end, after receiving an announcement, his position may be cut at the end of June.

This comes after the county is considering shutting down its in-house radiology and lab services to save money, but Zajak says it’s patients who will pay the price.

"We've been getting patients who are in panic mode. They have no idea what they're going to do. They're traumatized, just like we ar,e trying to figure out how they're going to be able to get their necessary blood draws so that the doctor can continue prescribing their medications," said Zajak.

In Santa Cruz County, the Health Service Agency had over 1,800 radiology patients and almost 8,000 patients' visit the lab in the fiscal year 2023/2024.

The big question — where will those patients go?

For external labs, it will explore an agreement with external labs.

Jennifer Herrera with HSA says for X-ray services, patients will need to travel to other local hospitals, and claims there will be no disruption in care, a statement chief radiology technologist supervisor for the Santa Cruz Health Services Fadi Ayyad says it is hard to believe.

"They're going to overwhelm the hospital. Or the radiology staff is going to be overwhelmed everywhere else. Advanced Dignity only has one X-ray room. What's going to happen when 10 people show up?" said Ayyad.

Ayyad says many of their patients are low-income, unhoused, or undocumented, and can’t afford delays or long trips for basic care.

"We could confirm it with an X-ray right there. They don't have to go and like find a radiology office that's going to take them, wait days," said Ayyad.

KION asked if he is worried for his patients.

"I really am because a lot of them I see who they are and I know what they go through and I know how hard it is for them to show up," said Ayyad/

According to the report from HSA, total radiology costs are over 525,000 and over 1.5 million for lab work, so in total, its looking like 2 million dollars.