Sharbot Lake family health team is offering COVID tests, but don’t tell anyone

Sep 30, 2020

When school started up two weeks ago, the demand for COVID tests skyrocketed, and the hardship for Frontenac County residents living a long drive from Kingston and need a COVID test became a more acute.

The prospect of his patents driving an hour to Kingston, only to wait 4 or 5 hours and then have to drive an hour home did not sit well with Dr. Peter Bell of the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team.

So he, along with Dr. Danny Cunic, decided they would come in early for their shifts and offer COVID screening and testing to patients who are registered with the Family Health Team. In order to make sure this added service does not compromise the care offered for other ailments and conditions at the clinic, clinic patients seeking a test are required to phone the clinic in advance to make an appointment.

“That way we can have all the paperwork and swabs ready and we can do drive by testing quickly and efficiently” said Dr. Bell, in an interview on Tuesday.

“We intended to keep this quiet,” he added, “we don’t want people driving here for testing from far away because we are not offering that kind of service.”

The testing has garnered some extra publicity however, from a video interview of Dr. Bell by Dr. Kieran Moore, medical officer of health for Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington.

The interview, which was posted on Youtube and promoted on Facebook and Twitter, includes a statement by Dr. Moore about his hope that other primary care clinics, particularly those in Kingston, will follow the lead from Sharbot Lake and begin offering COVID testing to their patients.

It has garnered 1500 views, a large number considering that the entire patient roster of the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team is about 2700 families.