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Dynacare has opened its latest medical testing site in Sudbury, Ont.
The company, headquartered in Brampton, Ont., processes more than 1,500 tests from bloodwork, urine samples, swabs and other types of sampling.
The company also conducts occupational testing, such as mask fittings and drug and alcohol tests.
“Sudbury obviously being a major population, economic centre and medical centre in northern Ontario that sort of attracted us there,” said Brendon Lalonde, Dynacare’s vice-president of business development, client services and solutions.
“Also the fact that it is a hub for occupational testing services.”
Samples collected in northern Ontario, however, are processed at the company’s laboratory in Brampton, roughly 400 kilometres south of Sudbury.
Lalonde said a central lab helps ensure quality and efficiency and the distance from Sudbury should not be an issue.
“I’m not concerned,” he said.
“The vast majority of samples collected will be turned around within 24 hours for almost all of the testing. And really, to be honest, much more of the testing is actually ready for 8 a.m. the next morning.”
But Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas, the NDP’s health critic, said she’s concerned the company won’t establish a lab in Sudbury.
“They make more money when they bring all of the samples down south to big lab centres,” she said. “That’s at the expense of the health and the health infrastructure of northern Ontario.”
LifeLabs is ending some of its Sudbury-based lab testing on May 17. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
Late last year, Dynacare competitor LifeLabs announced it would shut down its Sudbury lab and ship all samples from the city to southern Ontario.
The company later said it would continue to process “specialized tests” in Sudbury but would stop its other local processing operations on May 17.
Gélinas said the distance could lead to delays in receiving test results, especially if there’s a highway closure.
She said losing lab capacity in Sudbury also diminishes the city’s ability to attract some medical professionals.
“When we don’t have an actual analysis lab in Sudbury that means that we cannot retain and develop northern medical lab technologists,” Gélinas said.