The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is working on making it easier to book a COVID-19 test.
CEO Lori Marshall says a newly revised online booking tool should help reduce the wait between booking and getting in for a test, and ease some of the frustration.
“We’re putting in a new (system) that will remember your information if you need to come back into the system, it also allows you to cancel your appointment,” Marshall explains. “That was one of our issues before, we weren’t actually able to remove that information from the system when somebody new was coming in to book, so it ended up pushing people out further than they needed to be.”
Meantime, Chatham-Kent is bucking the trend, not only in the number of COVID cases, but also in testing.
Marshall says the local assessment centre isn’t seeing nearly the backlog in processing that’s plaguing some of Ontario’s larger centres.
“I’m hearing that at this stage it’s about two to three days that people are receiving their results back,” Marshall says. “I think part of the reason for going to the online booking and trying to really manage those numbers well was to make sure that we don’t overload and cause difficulty at the labs that are trying to process these things.”
Marshall hopes new changes to the online booking website at www.assessmentbooking.ca will eventually allow for same-day or next-day tests.
While walk-ins are no longer accepted for COVID-19 testing, you can still go to the assessment centre in person to book an appointment.
Residents can also call 519-352-6400 x6548 Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm to book an appointment.