Ontario Group Calls for Funding to Expand Lab Student Training Programs
Ontario medical labs face critical staffing shortages, delaying test results. MLPAO urges $6M funding for student training to expand workforce capacity.
Medical laboratories across Ontario are facing persistent staffing shortages that are delaying test results and straining a workforce critical to clinical care and public health surveillance. In response, the Medical Laboratory Professionals Association of Ontario (MLPAO) is calling on the province to fund lab-based educator positions to expand student clinical placements and ease workforce pressures.
A recent MLPAO survey found that 68% of Ontario medical laboratories report shortages of medical laboratory technologists (MLTs). These professionals perform the diagnostic testing that supports physician decision-making, disease surveillance, and outbreak investigations across the healthcare system.
Staff Shortages Create Training Bottlenecks, Extend Test Turnaround Times
Staffing gaps are increasingly affecting laboratory operations. The association’s 2025 report indicates that shortages are contributing to longer turnaround times for diagnostic testing, including cancer diagnostics and sexually transmitted infection panels, delaying results for patients and clinicians.
Although laboratories remain understaffed, the MLPAO says the issue is not a lack of student interest. MLT students are required to complete clinical placements as part of their training, but many laboratories are unable to accept trainees because they lack sufficient staff to supervise and educate them.
Michelle Hoad, CEO of the MLPAO, told CBC Radio-Canada, “When a lab is short-staffed, they’re not able to take a student from that program.” She described the situation as a training bottleneck, noting that many laboratories maintain waitlists for clinical placements. (Photo credit: MLPAO)
The MLPAO is requesting $6 million over three years to fund educator positions within medical laboratories. The association argues that targeted funding would expand placement capacity, accelerate workforce entry for new graduates, and reduce reliance on overtime among existing staff.
Hoad said Ontario’s staffing challenges have been building for more than a decade and were intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. “A lot of people were understaffed, overworked,” she said. “A lot of people that were eligible to take retirement, took early retirement.”
Lab Staffing Pressures Persist Across North America
Similar workforce pressures are being reported in the United States. The American Society for Clinical Pathology’s (ASCP) 2024 Vacancy Survey, reported on recently by Dark Daily, found that while vacancy rates in US medical laboratories have declined from pandemic-era highs, they remain well above pre-pandemic levels as retirements accelerate faster than the pipeline of newly trained professionals. Survey authors warned that workforce recovery has been “uneven and incomplete,” with sustained recruitment and retention challenges continuing to affect laboratory operations nationwide.
Ontario has made some investments aimed at strengthening the MLT pipeline. In 2024, the province added 700 new seats to MLT education programs, according to Ema Popovic, spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones. The government also expanded the Ontario Learn and Stay Grant to include MLT students, covering tuition and book costs in exchange for post-graduation service commitments in underserved areas.
The MLPAO welcomed those measures but said they have not resolved immediate operational challenges inside laboratories. Hoad noted that many technologists continue to work double shifts or delay vacation time to maintain testing volumes.
“It’s a very giving group,” Hoad said. “But that being said, we need to make sure that we don’t take advantage of them and we make sure that they’re properly staffed.”
Popovic did not respond to questions from CBC Radio-Canada about whether the Ministry of Health has received or is considering the MLPAO’s funding request for lab-based educators.
According to the MLPAO study, targeted funding could quickly expand training capacity. Among laboratories that currently do not accept students for clinical placements, 37% said they would be able to do so if a government-funded trainer were available.
For laboratory leaders, the association warns that failure to address training capacity risks prolonging workforce shortages, increasing burnout, and extending turnaround times—structural challenges mirrored across North America and with direct implications for diagnostic quality, patient care, and system resilience.
—Janette Wider
