The Alberta government is taking more medical test appointments in-house starting this weekend to reduce bottlenecks and long waits, particularly in Calgary.
The government-owned Alberta Precision Laboratories is to offer 400 new community testing appointments at the South Health Campus and the Peter Lougheed Centre in Calgary beginning Saturday.
Another 175 appointments are to open a week after that in Calgary at the Foothills Medical Centre.
The change is part of an arrangement worked out between Alberta Precision Labs and Dynalife, the private provider that handles the bulk of community lab appointments in Alberta.
Alberta Precision Labs is part of Alberta Health Services and mainly handles lab tests in hospitals and urgent care centres.
Health Minister Adriana LaGrange says this is just the first step and the government is also working to extend lab appointment hours and hire more staff.