Changes are now in effect at London’s two COVID-19 assessment centres as the facilities’ operators look to better serve community needs.
Last week, the Thames Valley Family Health Team (TVFHT) announced that the centre at Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre would be reserved for walk-ins only, while the centre at Oakridge Arena would only accept appointments.
The transition to a new system comes as the province prepares to shift all of Ontario’s assessment centres to appointment-only.
Announced by Premier Doug Ford last week, that change is set to take hold on Tuesday, with walk-in testing paused at assessment centres Sunday and Monday.
However, TVFHT executive director Mike McMahon says London’s assessment centres are not affected by the provincial change.
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“Nothing else has changed in terms of the London-Middlesex assessment centres except the testing guidance for school-aged children,” said McMahon.
McMahon says the changes to Ontario’s walk-in centres, which will start only accepting appointments starting Tuesday, won’t affect local centres. McMahon says that’s because TVFHT was not operating walk-in assessment centres when the announcement was made.
“We were not operating (walk-in assessment centres) since about Sept. 15,” said McMahon
On top of changes to how the centres will accept patients, the TVFHT has also made changes as to who will be accepted at either site.
The centre at Carling Heights will now prioritize patients who meet one of the following criteria:
- have COVID-19 symptoms
- have been notified by public health or the COVID Alert app that they’ve been exposed to a confirmed case
- live or work in a setting that has had an outbreak as identified by public health
- are eligible for testing as part of a “targeted testing initiative” as determined by the Ministry of Health or Ministry of Long-Term Care
At Oakridge Arena, the centre will focus on patients who meet one of the following criteria:
- kids 12 and under who have symptoms
- health-care workers with symptoms
- asymptomatic people who are:
- residents, workers, visitors or caregivers at a retirement home or long-term care facility
- international students who’ve completed their 14-day quarantine
- farm workers
- members of Indigenous communities
- members of other setting-specific populations as defined by the province’s chief medical officer of health, such as those who are about to have an operation or about to start chemo-therapy
For those in Middlesex County seeking testing outside of London, the Middlesex-London Paramedic Service will continue to offer testing via its mobile testing bus.
This week will see the bus parked in Strathroy, Komoka and Ilderton on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, respectively.
On all three dates, the mobile testing site will operate from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., however visitors may want to arrive early.
Monday’s stop in Strathroy saw the mobile testing site reach capacity about 10 minutes before it opened.
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