One of the two current providers of community medical testing in Canterbury has been chosen to continue doing the work.
This has been confirmed by the Canterbury District Health Board following a closed-door meeting in Christchurch on Friday.
The firms have shared the community medical testing work with the hospital over the past five years, but the DHB has decided just one will share the work with its hospital lab in future.
The DHB will not announce its preferred provider until next week.
The current private providers are Medlab South and Southern Community Laboratories, with a total of 208 staff.
The DHB's manager of planning and funding, Carolyn Gullery, says a North Island lab firm which also put in a bid for a slice of the $24 million annual contract has missed out.
A larger-scale medical testing change in Auckland two years ago was difficult and has left district health boards and others extremely wary.
The Canterbury DHB says it is talking to the labs over the next few days to ensure a smooth transition with minimal job losses.
It says even in the worst-case scenario, job losses would be less than 25% of the two firms' staff.
