Since it opened on Oct. 16, the new Dynacare lab in Keremeos has been busy meeting the needs of the community.
In 2022, Keremeos’ Interior Health run lab faced difficulties with staffing, curtailing the services and hours it had to offer. To fill that gap came Dynacare, which worked with Interior Health to get established just as the previous lab fully closed.
“Obviously we’ve seen a lot of disruptions in health care throughout the province and in the Okanagan,” said Mayor Jason Wiebe. “We appreciate the work that Interior Health is doing, and I think through partnerships like this one we can provide the services that we need for our community.”
Wiebe and Keremeos’ village councillors joined members of Dynacare on Nov. 8 for a ribbon cutting at the lab to celebrate the service’s arrival.
The new lab is open three days a week — Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays — from 7:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. The facility also handles the weekly testing for the care facility attached to the South Similkameen Health Centre.
“This community has required additional access for collection and for testing services, so we’re really happy to be providing that access in this location,” said Tanya Martin, the vice-president of operations at Dynacare.
Once the samples are collected and sorted in Keremeos, they’re then shipped by courier for testing at Dynacare’s Valley Medical Laboratories locations in Penticton or Kelowna.
READ MORE: Keremeos Hospital lab to close, private facility to open instead
It’s the certainty of the hours of operation that Wiebe noted were important, compared to the previously irregular hours and disruptions that IH’s lab was dealing with.
“We struggled in our community to have services two days a week, and it was spotty, and now we’re kind of guaranteed three days and more if needed,” said Wiebe. “I think it’s a fantastic step for our community.”
Since it opened in October, they have already seen an average of 35 patients a day. Dynacare said that if the need is there so is the possibility of expanding the availability for its services.
The tests are all covered by Canadian healthcare, and appointments can be made either by a patients doctors directly or by the patient themselves online at ValleyMedicalLaboratories.com/Locations or Dynacare.ca/Find-a-Location under Keremeos.
Currently the lab is not offering collection services for walk-ins, but does have drop-offs for samples.
In addition to blood and urine collection and testing, the lab also offers access to national testing services, such as the HarmonyTM non-invasive prenatal test.