Issue at root of local test result delays remains unknown

Public health says it is working with the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health to figure out the problem

Hamilton public health says in cases where people need a negative COVID-19 test to visit someone in a seniors’ home, it “almost always” takes 10 days to get results, if not longer.

As for what’s causing the delay, they don’t know.

Michelle Baird, director of epidemiology, wellness and communicable disease control with Hamilton public health, said public health has had an increase in calls in the last week from people wondering where their results are, eager to have a negative result in order to visit a loved one in a long-term-care or retirement home.

Public health has no control over when tests come back, nor does it know the cause of the delays, but it is working with the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health to learn what the problems are, she said.

“We know it’s making people anxious, it’s causing frustration,” Baird said, acknowledging many residents haven’t seen their loved ones in seniors’ homes since March.

“Certainly, visits are important.”

The Spectator has spoken with residents trying to visit their elderly parents who waited as long as 12 days for test results.

Tests must have been taken within 14 days to comply with provincial policy on visits.

It appears such delays might be Hamilton-specific.

“Right now, we know it’s a Hamilton issue and we haven’t heard that it is elsewhere,” Baird said, noting the Ministry of Health hasn’t clarified if this is a provincewide issue.

The Ministry of Health directed questions about delays to Ontario Health which did not respond to questions by deadline.

Last week, Ontario Health, the agency responsible for overseeing all COVID testing labs in the province, confirmed it’s failing to meet its testing turnaround time targets, citing a higher volume of tests.

Its target is to turn around 60 per cent of tests in one day and 80 per cent in two days.

The lab network is experiencing a seven-day average of 66 per cent of turnarounds within two days, said Ontario Health spokesperson Gillian Wansbrough on Thursday.

“We are not aware of cases in which test result turnaround is significantly beyond the targets, however there are unique situations that have resulted in longer than anticipated timelines,” she said.

“We seek to learn and refine our operating procedures to mitigate these issues in the future.”

Still, it remains unclear if the labs are responsible for 10-dayplus delays the likes of which Hamiltonians are seeing.

Dominik Mertz, an associate professor in the division of infectious diseases at McMaster University, doubts labs are responsible for the significant delays, saying it’s unlikely they take a week or more to process tests.

The problem is more likely rooted in the provincial system used to transmit test results, the Ontario Laboratories Information System, he said.

Meanwhile, Hamilton’s medical officer of health advised people Tuesday not to seek out a second test if they’re still awaiting the results of their first.

“What they end up doing is adding to the burden that is going on within the laboratory system in terms of getting the results processed,” Dr. Elizabeth Richardson said.

“Rather than improving their turnaround time, they very well could be increasing that time that it takes because of increasing further the backlog and duplicate records and confusion in the system.”

People who test positive typically receive results sooner, most within 24 hours, Richardson said.