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Private medical company Dynacare is consolidating 26 of the 53 diagnostic labs it operates in or near Winnipeg into four “supersites”, Global News has learned.

The Brampton Ont.-based company operates all of the private blood and urine collection sites in Winnipeg, sending samples daily to its King Edward Street laboratory for analysis.

The new “supersites” will open throughout December this year, said Dr. Jenisa Naidoo, the company’s Manitoba medical and operations director and vice president of clinical development.

The collection site closures will be staggered throughout December, corresponding to when the new sites open, she added.

“The plan is actually to improve wait times, currently we have a number of sites where individuals are working solo,” Naidoo said.

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The new sites will be bigger, with more staff and will have more phlebotomy — or blood-drawing — stations, said Naidoo.

There will be also more parking and the new locations will be more accessible to people with mobility issues and patient capacity will increase, Naidoo said.

“We’ve actually built for growth. It wasn’t just to relocate and have existing volume,” she said. The new sites will have the capacity to handle increased volume.

In 2018, the company saw about 1.5 million patients. Naidoo said most patients come in for five or six tests per requisition per year.

The four new “supersites” will be spread throughout four corners of Winnipeg, including the west, northwest, south, and southeast.

Dynacare’s City Place location will be integrated into the Winnipeg Clinic.

No collection sites will be consolidated in the northeast.

Dynacare acquired lab companies Unicity Laboratory and X-Ray Services in December 2017.

Some collection sites were closed in the process, and some Unicity Laboratory employees were laid off by that company, before later being hired by Dynacare.

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The company said the new sites will be located within one to six kilometers of its former locations.

Here’s the list of new locations:

Unicity (3653 Portage Ave.)

Seasons of Tuxedo

St. Vital (1225 St. Mary’s Road)

Garden City (2211 McPhillips Ave.)

Here’s the list of the Dynacare locations slated to close:

Park Hill (3263 Portage Ave.)

Westwood (3320 Portage Ave.)

Old Tuxedo (262-2025 Corydon Ave.)

Charleswood (3360 Roblin Blvd.)

Tuxedo Medical (1425 Corydon Ave.)

Stafford (100-305 Stafford St.)

Pan Am (75 Poseidon Bay)

Prairie Trail (100-1345 Taylor Ave.)

Viva Care (1665 Kenaston Blvd.)

Linden Ridge (123 Scurfield)

Dakota (845 Dakota St.)

Meadowood (1555 St Mary’s Rd.)

St. Vital (1087 St. Mary’s Rd.)

Vista (1633 St. Mary’s Rd.)

Family Matters (730 St. Anne’s Rd.)

Health Plus (1075 Autumnwood Dr.)

McPhillips (106-2200 McPhillips St.)

Court (106-1021 Court Ave.)

Leila (630 Leila Ave.)

Park View (103-2110 Main St.)

Seven Oaks (1750 Main St.)

Keewatin (6-998 Keewatin Ave.)

Atlantic Medical (1054 McPhillips St.)

Prairie Trails (2300 McPhillips St.)

Mountain (585 Mountain Ave.)

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