Northern Ontario Resilience (S2E4)

This month we’re featuring Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. Their laboratory in northwestern Ontario is the only regional acute care hospital for 48% of Ontario’s land mass containing just 2% of the province’s population. Despite courier and inclement weather delays, distance from major centres, and critical staffing shortages, this group is dedicated and ready to deliver every day. Their team worked hard to bring COVID-19 RT-PCR testing on board on 3 separate platforms, mitigating supply chain issues and test kit shortages. We spoke with Georgia Carr - Manager, Laboratory Services, Jim Uliana, Senior Technologist, Biochemistry, and Lyllian Stavropoulos - Specimen Procurement & Dispatch Coordinator, about their reflections one year after the onset of the pandemic. Season 2 of the Dish focuses on how labs have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some are rapidly ramping up testing and overcoming immeasurable odds testing for COVID-19, others are struggling or working on other testing while staff are re-deployed elsewhere. Join us as we follow one lab each month and explore how the pandemic is impacting labs across the province, from the patterns between to specific local situations.