No reversal of decision to close downtown Trail laboratory despite community’s questions

Photo: File

Interior Health announced last month that the Trail Health Centre Laboratory will be closed as of July 28.

Despite a broad-based plea to the Interior Health board of directors for a reversal of a decision to close a downtown Trail medical lab, the request has fallen on deaf ears.

In late June in an Interior Health (IH) virtual board meeting, Interior Health vice president of quality, research and academic affairs, Glenn McRae, addressed the issue of the closure of the Trail Health Centre laboratory, announced in early June.

He said the decision was made about how to best use laboratory staff and resources in the community and still maintain core laboratory functions at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital (KBRH), necessitating the closure of the health centre lab at the end of this month.

“Doing that will give us the opportunity to allow laboratory staff that previously worked at the Trail Health Centre to support ongoing lab services at KBRH,” he said.

Much of the community laboratory work at the public clinic that was once done in downtown Trail will shift seven kilometres away to an existing, privately-owned LifeLabs location in Waneta Mall.

LifeLabs has been in place supporting the community since 2024, McRae said.

“They have the capacity and the staff to support all of the community laboratory work in the area,” he said.

City of Trail Coun. Bev Benson asked McRae during the meeting how the decision to close the Trail lab took into account the accessibility needs of seniors, people with disabilities, and those without reliable transportation—particularly in a region with limited transit options.

“Was an impact assessment completed to understand how this change could affect vulnerable residents and their ability to access timely care?” she said.

McRae did not address the impact assessment question, instead stating that the LifeLabs location was chosen in 2023 for its accessibility, abundant parking—which the downtown location did not have, he said—and public transportation links.

And the distance of LifeLabs from downtown is seven km., said Dr. Robert Halpenny, IH board chair.

“In smaller communities it seems like a larger distance, but in larger communities it doesn’t seem like much. It’s all in your perspective,” he said. “I can see people’s concerns.”

People took their concerns to the region’s MLA, Steve Morrisette, lobbying for him to intervene in the lab’s closure, the second in the Trail region this year.

Coupling the Beaver Valley Clinic closing Feb. 28—after over 40 years of operation—with the Trail laboratory closure, soon LifeLabs will be run off their feet, said Fruitvale resident Helen Bobbitt in a letter to Morrisette.

“If anything, there should be a LifeLabs satellite location to replace the downtown Trail lab if that’s what the situation is,” she contended. “This decision is ageist and ableist against the most vulnerable of society and those with additional higher needs who are reliant on structure and access to local community services.”

Bobbitt explained that at no point was there any community consultation from IH over the decision to close the lab.