Residents in Saint Andrews can now have blood and other specimens collected closer to home after Horizon Health Network (HHN) opened a full-time lab at the St. Andrews Wellness Centre, reducing the need to travel outside the community for testing.
The lab, which operates Monday through Friday with a full-time phlebotomist, provides blood and specimen collection services for residents while allowing samples to be transported through the HHN laboratory system.
Annette Harland, practice manager at the St. Andrews Wellness Centre and the town’s deputy mayor, said residents began raising concerns in 2024 about the challenges they faced when accessing blood collection services.
At the time, New Brunswick Extra-Mural Program (NBEMP) nurses were able to collect blood, but patients or their families were still responsible for getting those samples to St. Stephen for testing.
Harland said the feedback from residents highlighted the need for a more accessible option within the community.
“For many of our seniors or for people with mobility issues, getting the blood to St. Stephen was a real challenge, especially in the winter months,” she said.
The Wellness Centre began working with HHN and the NBEMP to find a solution. The groups explored different options, including how specimens could be processed and transported, before establishing the new lab.
Jennifer Apopei-Anderson, manager of HHN’s primary care sites in Charlotte County, said the lab came from conversations between health-care providers about how to better serve residents locally.
“Honestly, it started as a conversation between extramural, the clinic there in Saint Andrews, and with our primary health clinics,” Apopei-Anderson said. “Just wondering what we could do to alleviate some of the pressures on individuals from the Saint Andrews area having to travel to other areas.”
The specimen lab is in addition to a $1.7 million investment in the Saint Andrews Wellness Centre in order to transform it into a collaborative care clinic. It was the 13th clinic to be announced by the Holt government.
The clinic is expected to take all patients in the E5B area code off the NB Health Link waitlist.
Dr. Madison Borsella, Dr. Grayson Gould and Dr. Madison Stevens will arrive in the fall.
In October 2025, the Town of Saint Andrews and HHN signed a memorandum of understanding for the renovations to the W.C. O’Neill Arena Complex to accommodate the specimen lab.
“In appreciation of the efforts of the council, including the investments in the current facility, Horizon Health Network (HHN) has agreed to fund the renovations now needed to allow for extra service providers,” Coun. Lee Heenan, reading background on the motion in October, said.
Heenan added, the regional health authority provided the funding for the renovation in exchange for not charging rent for a five-year period. The cost of the renovations is between $250,000 and $300,000.
The process required coordinating equipment, transportation and staffing.
The lab now allows residents to book blood collection appointments locally, while also supporting patients receiving care through the Extra-Mural Program.
Harland said the difference has been especially significant for people who require frequent testing.
“For someone who is being treated for a major illness, they sometimes have to have blood drawn once a week,” she said. “To be able to come here, as opposed to driving 25 minutes to St. Stephen, that is an incredible improvement in their life.”
The new service has also benefited physicians at the Wellness Centre by allowing urgent blood work to be completed more efficiently. Harland said the ability to have blood collected on-site has been especially valuable when physicians need results quickly to guide treatment decisions.
“They can get their results in a day or two and be able to work on a treatment plan, providing the best kind of care that they can for their patients,” Harland said.
Apopei-Anderson said improving access to care within rural communities remains an important priority.
“I think it’s important for people to be able to access their care in the community that they live in,” she said. “It’s not easy for people to travel even 30 minutes to another location.”
