THUNDER BAY – The COVID-19 testing backlog in Thunder Bay is all but gone.
That’s great news, says Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre's Jackie Park, who is in charge of the city’s COVID-10 assessment centres. The change will allow the assessment centre’s Confederation College satellite site to switch gears a bit and start testing other at-risk patients during afternoon down times.
Park said as recently as three weeks ago there were hundred people waiting for tests, but that’s mostly diminished over time.
“The volume has decreased a little bit. The changes in the guidelines for student testing certainly made a huge impact on the amount of calls that we were getting and the amount of tests that needed to be done,” Park said on Thursday.
“We did open a second assessment site, which is at Confederation College and that’s for students, as well as any auxiliary staff for schools.”
Even those numbers are lower than expected, Park said.
“The volume isn’t what we thought it would be. We expected a lot more volume. You’re able to get a test the same day and we are only booking same-day appointments for students and staff associated with the schools,” she said.
“We also are now going to start testing asymptomatic long-term care visitors as well as international travel. We’ll be testing those individuals at the school assessment site in the afternoon, just to utilize the space a little bit better and to separate asymptomatic patients from symptomatic patients, which is something we wanted to do from the beginning.”
Park said the number of tests being conducted each day is between 40 and 50 patients at the college.
She added Thunder Bay has been asked to ramp up the number of tests it does each day by 200 per cent, in order to meet the provincially mandated cap.
The province made it a little tougher to hit the target, allowing only eight asymptomatic categories eligible for testing.
Park said they are prioritizing those cases, to ensure that symptomatic patients can get same-day or following-day appointments.
“Even though our online booking looks like we do not have any spots for up to a week, we do have priority spots for symptomatic people on a daily basis. So if you are having symptoms, please call our line to get one booked.”
Park asked that anyone with an appointment booked who no longer needs it to be sure to cancel to free up openings for others who do.
“We actually have a large amount of people who no-show for appointments, and we’ve been finding that’s happening a lot since the guidelines changed a bit,” she said. “Sometimes we have 20 people a day not show up for their appointments.”
Overbooking is also an issue at times, Park said.
A call centre is being opened separate from the testing centre at the hospital, which will manage the number of calls.
“As well, we just recently changed our website and there are some different options ... also one to leave a message and a have a nurse call you back with results.”
Park said they’ll be able to ramp up the number of tests that can be done each day if need be, should the province provide that direction. She added they have flexibility in the event of an outbreak or testing that needs to be done.
