Kitchener lab ordered to stop selling PCR tests to long-term care homes

A Kitchener lab that processes COVID-19 tests was ordered to stop selling them to long-term care and retirement homes by the Ministry of Labour.

Epitome processes PCR tests and started privately selling the tests to homes in December 2021.

The CEO of the company, James Yantzi said he was selling them to 35 homes in the GTA and Waterloo Region. Last Friday, he said he was ordered by the Ministry of Health to stop that part of his operation.

“Because the nursing homes are covered by the province,” said Yantzi.

He said his goal was to help with the province's testing network, recently swamped and backlogged since the Omicron variant.

“During the backlog it was more severe somewhere between five to 10 days for the results back. And I understand now it’s between two to four days,” said Yantzi.

Yantzi said the turnaround time at Epitome for PCR tests at long-term care homes and nursing homes was about 12 to 48 hours.

According to a spokesperson from the Ministry of Health, concerns were raised about Epitome’s private testing.

The spokesperson said Epitome’s testing was outside the scope of their lab licence to perform.

“Private PCR testing results are not uploaded into the provincial laboratory information system, and are not entered into the public health case and contact management information system, which means that they cannot be effectively used to inform public health response and support outbreak management in these settings,” said W.D. Lighthall, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Health.

The statement also said the Ministry of Long-Term Care visited with some LTC homes in the Kitchener-Waterloo area and clarified for them that laboratories providing publicly funded COVID-19 PCR testing must meet licensing requirements, including the ability to upload results to the provincial lab information system, in order to provide publicly funded COVID-19 PCR testing.

“It it’s just a bit frustrating for us to want to contribute to the local community and not be able to participate in the efforts,” said Yantzi. “The province set up a network of 70 labs and they have 10 to 15 in Toronto and Ottawa and Hamilton and London because you Kitchener-Waterloo doesn’t have an additional lab.”

The province confirmed that Epitome has not submitted a request to the ministry to change their licence to provide publicly funded tests.

Yantzi said he plans to look into doing so in the near future.