Trail Health Centre lab to remain open permanently as local training program takes shape

Interior Health says the downtown laboratory will stay open after more than a year of uncertainty, while a new Selkirk College program aims to address the staffing shortages that helped put the service at risk.

The Trail Health Centre laboratory will remain open permanently, ending more than a year of uncertainty over the future of the downtown service.

Interior Health announced Aug. 11 that outpatient laboratory services will continue at the Trail Health Centre following engagement with patients, physicians, staff and community leaders.

The decision marks a significant shift from June 2025, when Interior Health announced plans to close the downtown laboratory and redirect most outpatient testing to the LifeLabs location at Waneta Plaza.

At the time, Interior Health said the change was intended to make better use of laboratory staffing resources in Trail and improve testing for emergency department and admitted patients at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital.

The proposed closure drew concern from local residents and community leaders, including Trail Mayor Colleen Jones, who raised questions about accessibility and the effect of moving services away from the downtown core.

Interior Health later kept the laboratory open while it consulted patients, physicians, municipal leaders and others about the future of the service.

Now, the health authority says the laboratory is staying permanently.

Interior Health said feedback from community leaders, patients, physicians and staff reinforced the importance of maintaining outpatient laboratory services at the Trail Health Centre.

Urgent and acute laboratory services will continue to be provided through Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital.

Training workers locally

Interior Health is also pointing to a new Medical Laboratory Assistant training program being developed at Selkirk College’s Trail campus as part of the longer-term effort to make laboratory services more sustainable.

Selkirk College announced the program in June after receiving more than $400,000 in provincial funding.

The first cohort is expected to include 24 students in the 2027/28 academic year.

The one-year program will include three semesters of classroom instruction followed by a regional practicum, using an accredited curriculum supplied by Camosun College.

The program is being developed in response to what Selkirk College has described as a critical shortage of medical laboratory assistants across Interior Health and British Columbia.

For rural communities such as Trail, the aim is to train workers closer to where they are needed and improve the chances they will remain in the region.

Jones has previously said the idea of establishing laboratory training in Trail emerged as the community looked for longer-term solutions to the staffing pressures threatening the downtown lab.

Interior Health now says the Selkirk program will help support the future sustainability of laboratory services in the region.

However, Selkirk’s first cohort is not expected until the 2027/28 academic year, leaving a question about what has changed in the meantime.

When Interior Health first proposed closing the laboratory in 2025, staffing pressures were central to the decision.

Interior Health’s Aug. 11 announcement does not detail what changes in staffing, recruitment or funding now allow it to commit to keeping the Trail Health Centre laboratory open permanently while the local training program is still being developed.

The Trail Health Centre laboratory, located at 1101 Dewdney Ave., provides outpatient laboratory services Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a lunch closure from 12:30 to 1 p.m.

The LifeLabs location at Waneta Plaza will continue to provide another option for outpatient testing, while Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital will continue handling urgent and acute laboratory work.