January 7, 2022 – St. John’s, NL: Eastern Health advises the public of the continuation of temporary changes to outpatient laboratory services (e.g. blood collection) across the region for January 10-14, 2022. These changes will enable resources to be redeployed to assist with the COVID-19 pandemic response.
- All non-urgent appointments have been cancelled.
- Urgent/emergent laboratory testing and services will continue.
- Eastern Health’s outpatient blood collection sites are restricted to urgent blood collection only. This includes blood testing for patients requiring: INRs (international normalized ratios), therapeutic drug-level monitoring testing and, for cancer care patients, monitoring of cancer clinic profiles and other required cancer-related testing.
Eastern Health also reminds the public of other temporary changes to services across the region in various areas. For more information, please visit the COVID-19 Service Updates webpage: https://www.easternhealth.ca/covid19/service-updates/.
In order to limit the spread of COVID-19 and to keep both our communities and health-care workers safe, visits to the emergency department are for urgent and emergent health-care issues only. Individuals can call the 811 HealthLine to speak to a registered nurse 24 hours a day, seven days a week about any health issue or concern. In case of an emergency, individuals should proceed to the nearest emergency department or call 911 for an ambulance.
Eastern Health thanks the public for their support and reminds them of the importance of continuing to follow public health guidance to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their communities. These precautions are designed to help keep patients, clients, residents, visitors, staff and physicians safe and help in the prevention and spread of infection.
We also understand that the pandemic has brought many changes and we would like to thank the public for their patience and kindness. Let’s work together to make civility and respect part of every interaction at clinics, hospitals and health-care facilities across the region.
– 30 –