Technical issues have resulted in a backlog of calls at Island Health’s COVID-19 testing call centre.
Some say over the last few days say they have tried for hours to get through with no luck, and when they did contact someone they were told the lines had gone down recently.
Island Health says they experienced a technical issue which they resolved Monday afternoon with Telus, and that staff were working into the evening to try to catch up with phone calls.
Guillermo Abadía Ruiz has been trying to contact Island Health’s call centre since Monday.
“Yesterday I spent the entire day relentlessly, seven-and-a-half hours dialing dialing dialing,” he said.
“When I was able to get through it was three hours of hold and the system was cut, and when I redialed I learned that the system was closed.”
Now his livelihood is at risk. With no test, he can’t go back to work.
“I earn on commission so If I’m not there helping customers make their decision for their vehicles, I cannot make an income as simple as that,” Ruiz said.
Others also say they were stuck on the line.
“Every time I get that message call back later, it’s just so frustrating and stressful,” said Jennifer, an essential worker in Nanaimo.
“It just makes you not want to call, which is not what we are being told.”
There are worries that testing efforts will continue to struggle, as what is expected to be a difficult winter approaches.
The number of tests Island Health gave out this weekend, 1,091, is more than last weekend which was 1,042.
Turnaround for results is still sitting around 20 hours.
But the last two days have not been reported. Some experts are saying a lack of testing is dangerous.
“There are two factors. One factor, data coming has a delay. It will make it difficult for us to predict what is going to happen if the data is not available yet,” said Junling Ma, an associate professor at the University of Victoria who focuses on infectious disease models.
“Another part is for public health, a more important issue is to isolate patients as soon as we can, so this is an important controlling strategy. If we won’t be able to identify the individuals who we need to isolate, these patients may have the chance to spread to more people.”
Ruiz eventually got hold of the centre, but the soonest a test is available for him is in two days.
Island Health says that “Efficient testing is a key aspect of our pandemic response and we thank everyone for their patience. To determine if you need a COVID-19 test, we ask everyone to use the online self-assessment tool before contacting the call centre.”
The health agency added that “We continue to experience high call volumes to our call centre. Mornings tend to be busier so we encourage people to call in the afternoon.”
Julian Kolsut
