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By Julia Lovett-Squires

Wait times

To get timely blood work patients are travelling, paying for private appointments

Mar 31, 2025 | 3:11 PM

**This story was updated on April 1 to include comments from the Ministry of Health

From time to time, Shelley Gordon needs to adjust her medication. She has a thyroid condition and on occasion needs a blood draw to check her levels.

“Oftentimes you need the answer sooner than later,” she said.

“It just provides reassurance a lot more quickly that you’re doing things that are good to improve your health, and it helps you sleep a lot better at night to get those results a lot sooner.”

The Prince Albert resident is among a growing population willing to pay out of pocket by going to private collection locations to have blood work done, instead of waiting for openings at a provincially funded location.

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“The mental stress of wondering is taxing on a person,” said Gordon. To help alleviate any wait times, private collection sites like Colette Portamedic Services have taken up that mantle.

“We’re just another option that’s more about convenience and putting the care back in healthcare,” Colette McDermott, owner and CEO, said.

She explained her staff of roughly a dozen are mitigating the backup from provincial locations.

The service, which is located in Prince Albert, began four years ago in the midst of the COVID pandemic. Prior to beginning the practice, McDermott had worked for over a decade in blood services and saw a need for an alternative as a collection site to the province’s services.

She said that for patients requiring blood draws, they can be waiting two to three weeks for an appointment.

“If you get tested sooner, you get a diagnosis sooner which then can have a treatment plan sooner,” she said.

According to the Saskatchewan Health Authority, most lab appointments are made through the online booking system. If patients are willing to drive to other communities, they can get appointments sooner. As an example, battlefordsNOW reviewed the appointment calendar using the SHA Patient Booking System for two sets of tests: blood/urine and an electrocardiogram (ECG) for a Prince Albert patient. At the time of this publication, the earliest a patient in Prince Albert could book an appointment was April 9. There was an option to get a same day appointment in Big River, which is nearly 1.5 hours away.

According to Gordon, using the phone to book has also been a struggle. First the patient gets a recording before being told they will receive a callback to book an appointment.

“Say you’re working, and you can’t answer the phone at that time, then you have to call again and so you’re constantly playing phone tag,” she said. “The most frustrating thing is often trying to book the time that makes it work in your life rather than just what’s available through the health region.”

In an email to battlefordsNOW, the Ministry of Health said although appointments are strongly encouraged, all SHA operated outpatient lab collection sites maintain spots to accomodate walk-in patients for routine testing for those that need their lab collection sooner than what is available through the online booking system.

“However, depending on time of day and the number of people who require lab services at a given site, walk-in patients may experience a wait for service.In cases of urgent need, the patient should work with their care provider to determine the safest course of action to access lab tests. Services may vary by location in the province,” tjhe email read.

McDermott said her business is seeing nearly 1,000 patients per month, which helps offset any backups at government-funded locations.

“They’re doing the best that they can…and they’re still processing our samples. We’re just a collection site, so we’re not the lab,” she said.

“Even though their wait-times are still two weeks, if we weren’t in the picture, it could be a lot longer.”

Gordon agreed and said she believes the province should be looking at supporting these kinds of facilities and working with them to create satellite sites.

“I know there’s probably worse wait times, but when you are waiting for results, there’s nothing more precious than your health. To pay to get your results faster and in a way that works for you as a person is invaluable,” she said.

“I get to decide what day works for me. I get to decide what time, rather than just being at somebody else’s beck and call. I have more say over my own health care.”

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: juleslovett.bsky.social