Dr. Jennifer Russell speaks at a news conference in Moncton on March 2, 2022 (Image by Robert Lothian)
The Georges-L. Dumont University Hospital Centre will be home to a new provincial public health lab.
In Moncton, Wednesday, New Brunswick Health Minister Dorothy Shephard announced a new lab to support the chief medical officer and ensure public health investigations are conducted in a timely manner with access to advanced testing.
Work to refurbish available space in the hospital for a new lab is expected to begin this fall and finish in 2024. Shephard told reporters the cost is estimated to be $10 million.
An additional 11 full-time employees will be hired to staff the lab, while 15 staff will be transferred from the current lab.
Throughout the pandemic, the Dumont Hospital has become integral for New Brunswick’s ability to identify cases of COVID-19, becoming one of the first provincial labs to detect the Delta variant, then identifying Atlantic Canada’s first case of the Omicron variant.
However, Dr. Jennifer Russell, chief medical officer of health, said it often meant public health priorities took precedence over clinical priorities.
“At the population level when you’re looking at outbreaks, you’re looking at surveillance as well to detect outbreaks, you’re looking at environmental testing…so that type of testing is very different from clinical testing and that’s why it’s really important to separate it so you can maximize the efficiency of both,” Russell said.
