Letter: Closure of medical lab puts Trail seniors at risk
Society pens letter to Premier David Eby etal.
The Society for the Protection and Care of Seniors in Trail is writing to share our concerns regarding the upcoming closure of the laboratory collection site located at the Trail Health Centre in downtown Trail.
The closure will require our seniors to receive laboratory services from LifeLabs, a for-profit American-owned company, operating under contract with the Ministry of Health until 2031.
The Society’s concerns include the following:
— Difficulty with transportation to LifeLabs, which is located about twenty minutes outside of downtown Trail. There is bus service to the mall where LifeLabs is located, but this is sporadic. Trail is a community of many elderly seniors. Many of these seniors are no longer able to drive or do not possess a car. Currently, they are able to step across the hall from their doctor’s office and get their blood work completed, receive their test results within a couple of hours, and have any necessary adjustments to their treatment made quickly.
— Access and technology barriers. Getting tests completed with LifeLabs will require access to a different health portal, not an easy feat for many seniors who are computer-challenged and many of whom do not have someone to help them set this up or take them to the LifeLabs site—which is 160 steps from the parking lot. This is a challenge for anyone with mobility or endurance issues, which includes a significant number of seniors. Waiting times will no doubt increase due to the increased volume of patients, as the Beaver Valley lab has also been closed. This will be very wearing for fragile patients.
— Delays in results. There will be a delay in getting necessary blood test results, as specimens will not be processed locally. They will be sent to another more distant location for testing. This delay could result in serious consequences if the doctor cannot access the results in a timely fashion. For example, patients on warfarin (a blood thinner) or diabetics require frequent blood tests to regulate dosage. All we need are patients dying from a hemorrhage needlessly.
— Loss of hospital funding. As we understand it, since the local hospital will not be processing these blood tests, they will lose this funding. Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital is just that—a regional hospital—and needs this funding.
— Loss of options. We have checked with friends who live in other B.C. communities, and although they, too, have LifeLabs in their areas, they have the option of having their blood taken at their local hospital. We no longer have this option.
The Interior Health Lab is located within the Trail Health Centre building, which is scheduled to open our brand-new Community Health Centre in the basement of that same building.
This was created to support one-stop, wrap-around care. Closing the on-site lab undermines this work that has taken several years to create and develop.
This move will introduce multiple barriers to our senior population.
Please give our concerns your earnest consideration before it is too late.
We understand that the B.C. Government was wanting to end contracts with the United States and cannot understand why the LifeLabs contract is not being terminated at this time.
Respectfully submitted,
Margaret Crawford
Audry Durham
Directors on the Board of Society for the Protection and Care of Seniors, Trail
This letter was sent to, and originally published on Trail Times web site. Click here to view it now.