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Increased material consumption and the limited availability of liquid handling materials - i.e. pipettes, gloves and other materials that are required for e.g. blood samples and corona tests - are currently making work more difficult for laboratory technicians across Europe. This is shown in a current survey by Starlab International GmbH among laboratory employees in Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Italy and France. Around 230 laboratory employees, managers and buyers were asked about the current situation in their laboratory and the supply of liquid handling materials. Those surveyed expect 2021 to be another difficult year due to staff and supply bottlenecks.
The increased material requirements due to the Corona crisis not only have an impact on the medical laboratories that are busy evaluating tests and developing a vaccine. Other laboratories are also increasingly complaining about a lack of materials in the liquid handling area. 44 percent of the laboratory technicians surveyed across Europe state that they are currently only receiving materials late or not at all. In Germany it is even over 60 percent. "We are currently observing a tense situation in all laboratories. The shortage does not only affect clinics and diagnostic laboratories that are entrusted with fighting the corona crisis," says Klaus Ambos, Managing Director of Starlab International GmbH. "This is also confirmed by another recent survey among our sales managers in Europe."
Although the approved vaccines give hope that the situation will be eased soon, a majority of the laboratory technicians surveyed expect that 2021 will also remain a tense year and that the demand for liquid handling materials could increase even more. 26 percent of those questioned assume an increase of around 25 percent, 8 percent even more than 50 percent. 56 percent assume that demand will remain high.
As a consequence, suppliers like Starlab can already observe effects similar to those in retail: Customers are increasingly stocking up on material in order to ensure smooth workflows in the future. Around a third of the laboratories surveyed had increasingly stocked up on material in the past few months. 42 percent want to build up additional material stocks with a view to future peaks.
Other research laboratories are burdened by uneven material distribution
Almost 50 percent of those surveyed also have the feeling that liquid handling materials are currently more difficult to obtain because medical laboratories are preferred for delivery. In Germany there are currently between more than 1,700 and 2,500 laboratories, depending on the count, that are active in the fields of food, environmental and medical analysis. The currently almost 170 Covid laboratories across Germany, which process around 100,000 tests per week, do not even represent ten percent of the laboratory landscape. The challenge: In view of the dramatically increasing number of corona cases, these laboratories have an immense need for material, which they demand from their suppliers. "Many laboratory equipment suppliers find themselves in a dilemma. Just because the public and social pressure is higher when it comes to Covid-19, this does not mean that other areas of medicine can suffer as a result. When it comes to delivering materials, we therefore strive for a balanced supply," explains Klaus Ambos.
Digitization against staff shortages
In addition to possible supply bottlenecks, which the majority of the surveyed laboratory employees consider the greatest challenge at 56 percent, the focus is also on the lack of specialist staff. Around 30 percent of those surveyed see this as one of the biggest challenges for the industry in 2021. The personnel crisis will be exacerbated by Corona, but existed before the pandemic, as Ambos knows: "The lack of specialist staff in the laboratories is a problem that the Industry has been busy for a long time. As in other areas, the Corona crisis acts like a magnifying glass here. " New trends in digitization can help. Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), for example, digitize and simplify processes such as the documentation of samples and can be linked to the entire laboratory management. "Digitization has the potential to make laboratory jobs more attractive again for the next generation, because it brings the actual research work back into focus," says Ambos.
About the study
For the survey at the end of December 2020, a total of 226 laboratory technicians from Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Italy and France were interviewed via Starlab's customer database. 62 of the respondents came from Germany, 12 from Austria, 87 from Great Britain, 45 from France and 20 from Italy. Participation was anonymous and on a voluntary basis. In addition, a survey was conducted among 35 international sales experts from Starlab carried out
