Over the past few months, booking a COVID-19 test through the Island Health COVID-19 Testing Call Centre has been a struggle for many.
Lengthy wait times, dropped calls and waiting days for a test has become the frustrating reality for Islanders.
Nanaimo resident Kathleen Byrne’s partner was told to get tested before returning to work after experiencing mild symptoms.
“From Friday to late afternoon Sunday, we called every hour to thirty minutes,” said Byrne.
After finally getting through on Sunday, they were told he would have to wait three days to get tested, a major financial blow for a young family.
“I mean that just like cuts a paycheck completely in half, possibly more than half,” Byrne said.
Island Health said it is making changes to improve the wait times.
According to Victoria Schmid, the vice-president of pandemic planning for Island Health, nurses are no longer doing an assessment asking if people need additional healthcare support. This means people will be able to call and just book the test.
“We should see calls really start to speed up and we should see our ability to get more callers through every day in the next coming days based on that change,” said Schmid.
Schmid said there are more than 1,000 unique callers each day, but with repeat calls, there are around 4,000 calls a day.
With limited staff, this makes it tough for the call centre to help everyone efficiently, but their second new measure will likely change that.
People can now request a callback instead of sitting on hold by submitting a form on the Island Health website.
People who request a callback need to do so between 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. PDT. The two ways to submit a callback are.
- Complete the COVID-19 Test Scheduling Callback online form
- Text “JOIN” and your name to: 1-833-206-5729
Schmid recommends calling the testing centre later in the day as there tends to be an influx of calls in the morning.
“I’m really sorry for any frustration people are having and please know, we do anticipate seeing some marked improvement over the next couple of days,” she said.
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Ben Nesbit
