Outpatient lab services switch to private company, at hospitals in Walkerton, Chesley, Durham

As of July 15, outpatient laboratory testing at the South Bruce Grey Health Centre’s Chesley, Durham and Walkerton hospital sites, has switched to Dynacare, a private community laboratory.

The locations for outpatient collections will remain in the hospital, in the same locations in Chesley and Walkerton, and will be relocated in Durham next to patient registration. The only change for patients will be that they no longer need to register to have their blood drawn.

Patients with a requisition for blood work can present to the hospital and proceed directly to the Community Lab Collections room to have their samples collected. Health centre laboratory staff will continue to collect samples from patients, which will be sent to Dynacare for processing.

The transition of this service is part of the health centre's Budget Recovery Action Plan, which was released in late January.

The health centre is facing a significant financial challenge, and since the hospital does not receive funding for outpatient laboratory testing, it is moving this lab testing to a private community laboratory which is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

Laboratory testing for inpatients and emergency patients will remain in the hospital.

The hours of operation for Community Laboratory Collections will remain the same as the current laboratory hours:
 

• Chesley – 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Monday to Friday
• Durham – 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday to Friday
• Walkerton – 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday to Friday

Back in March, the Kincardine hospital saw an agreement between the heatlh centre and the Kincardine Family Health Team, allowing hospital laboratory staff to collect samples from patients at the Hawthorne Community Clinic, making it relatively seamless for patients. The samples collected are sent to Life Labs for processing. Inpatient and emergency patient testing continues to be done at the hospital.