Blood collection appointments move online after phone calls swamp system

The Nova Scotia Health Authority is expanding its online booking service for blood collection appointments.

COVID-19 has curtailed blood collection for medical tests in Nova Scotia, with some hospitals shutting down blood collection servicesand others seeing only urgent and essential cases.

Some patients have expressed frustration with busy signals when trying to book blood tests by phone. Health officials have blamed the problem on too many patients calling to book at peak times.

The NSHA's central zone received about 49,000 callsalone during one week in August and the province even added more phone lines to try to alleviate the problem.

"They really had a lot of difficulty trying to get through to the phone line," said Shauna Thompson, senior director of pathology and laboratory medicine in the NSHA. "Multiple calls, waiting on hold. And in some cases folks had needed to book an appointment urgently."

Thompson saidshe hopes moving to online booking willalleviate the entire backlog in the coming weeks.

Online bookingin the Halifax region, Truro

Thompsonsaidonline booking is already available at the Woodlawn blood collection in Dartmouthand at the Colchester East Hants Health Centre in Truro.

She saidonline bookings will be activated on Wednesday for the Dartmouth General Hospital and the Lloyd E. Matheson Centre in Elmsdale.

She saidshe hopes to have all 63 of the province's blood collection centres connected to online bookings by the end of this year.

In the meantime, Thompson saidpatients can check online to see if online booking is available at their preferred location.

Patients without internet service will still be able to book by phone.

X-ray appointments to follow

Thompson saidshe'll add X-ray appointments to the system once the online system for blood appointments is perfected.

She saidonline bookings will also be extended to theIWK Health Centre, the region's children's hospital.

Thompson saidreducing the amount of phone calls will also free up workers for other aspects of the health system'sCOVID-19 response.

"We've hired a large volume of staff to manage those phone lines. So absolutely, we need to redeploy those resources elsewhere to help us," she said.