When will Airdrie see the expansion of lab services completed?

The province has announced that beginning in early 2024, the completion of community lab services in Airdrie, as well as Glenbrook Plaza in Calgary will mean approximately another 800 weekly appointments for patients needing lab services.

In a statement yesterday, the province announced that the most recent addition of a new community lab in Southeast Calgary will allow 2,000 more patients in the Calgary area will have their tests done sooner every week. With the promised expansion of the Airdrie and Southwest Calgary labs in 2024, the province said that these changes will provide an additional 2,800 lab appointments in the Calgary region.

The province added that the additional appointments build on the improvements to lab capacity made by Alberta Precision Laboratories in recent months.

"Alberta Precision Laboratories has increased appointment capacity in Calgary by 22 per cent since September. There are currently more than 24,000 community appointments available each week," the province stated. 

Provincial statistics show that in Calgary, on average, lab appointments are available within 12 to 14 days. By comparison, patients in Calgary were waiting approximately six weeks for an appointment in April 2023.

“Alberta Precision Laboratories has reduced wait times for walk-in and scheduled appointments by 34.4 per cent in Calgary. The current overall average wait time in the area is 28.8 minutes," said Tammy Hofer, the Chief Operating Officer for Alberta Precision Laboratories.

Earlier this year in August, Alberta Precision Laboratories began offering more community lab appointments in Calgary. Later that month, an agreement in principle was reached with Dynalife to transfer its staff, equipment and property to Alberta Precision Laboratories. This transfer is expected to be complete by December.

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