Canadian Blood Services is opening a new facility in Southern Ontario to replace the centres in Toronto, London, and Hamilton.
Located in Brampton, the new site is positioned close to three major highways as well as the Pearson International Airport to allow for easy and quick access to blood products.
The new site will be the largest and most state-of-the-art blood service facility in the country, says Angela Smith, a spokeswoman with Canadian Blood Services.
Smith says the new centre allows for “streamlining” the processes and promises a more efficient and cost-effective operation.
“In terms of flow, you can drive a truck in with blood from one end and process it and it goes out the other end,” Smith says.
“The other three sites are all old, and none of them are built to process blood. In fact one of the sites was built on an old funeral home.”
The site would also increase the number of weekdays from five to six for blood products delivery to hospitals, and will be serving 98 hospitals in the region.
Twenty-four-hour emergency service will also be enhanced with the new facility as hospitals would have better access to the blood products needed all in one location.
Smith says the centre’s close proximity to the airport also allows fast shipment of blood products to various locations in the country, and vice versa.
“It allows us to ship blood if somebody in B.C. needed a certain type or component of blood so we could ship it, and the reverse, if someone in Toronto or the area in Southern Ontario or Ontario needed certain specific blood we could have it shipped in.”
The Toronto site will be the first to move in the new centre early next year, followed by the centres in Hamilton and London. The site would be ready for its first deliveries in February.
Some employees from the older sites have decided to relocate to the new centre while others have taken severance packages. Smith says about 100 additional employees have been hired for the new location.
With reporting by Jeffrey Thompson
