News Release

Fergus, ON (March 17, 2008) -- Groves Memorial Community Hospital and LifeLabs Medical Laboratory Services today announced that LifeLabs will begin delivering laboratory services to patients in the communities of Fergus, Elora, Arthur and surrounding area, starting this month, thereby ensuring continuity in lab services to a growing population.

Patients will have the same access to the same services at the same location. Starting Monday, March 31st, 2008, LifeLabs will operate a full service collection centre where local patients can go to have specimens collected for an extensive menu of laboratory tests ordered by area physicians. The new LifeLabs facility will be located on the site of an existing specimen collection centre, scheduled for closure on Friday, March 28th, 2008, that is in close proximity to the hospital. The new collection centre will be open 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday to Friday, the same hours of operation as its predecessor.

In addition to community patient specimen collection, LifeLabs will offer the following services to physicians and long-term care facilities associated with Groves Memorial Community Hospital:

·         Delivery of supplies for specimen collection;
·         A range of community laboratory testing;
·         Electrocardiograms (ECGs); and
·         Delivery of test results

“Until now laboratory testing services were delivered to our local residents through a pilot project administered by the hospital and the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care,” said Groves Memorial Community Hospital CEO Jerome Quenneville. “We are pleased that with the help of LifeLabs these vital services continue to be offered to our community.”

LifeLabs has nearly 50 years experience serving the health needs of Canadians, and has been operating in the regions of Waterloo and Wellington for nearly 25 years. It delivers a broad range of community laboratory tests, which are used by healthcare professionals to accurately assess individual patient needs and identify effective treatments.

"As a strong advocate for patients in their community, Groves Memorial Community Hospital was instrumental in our decision to open a local patient centre to support the testing needs of area residents,” said President and CEO Hans Thunem. “Our organizations share a similar set of values and we look forward to working with the hospital and with local physicians and long-term care facilities to help deliver better outcomes in patient care through the provision of quality test results.”

About LifeLabs:

LifeLabs, provides laboratory testing services, which help physicians and other healthcare professionals diagnose, treat, monitor and prevent disease in patients. LifeLabs employs more then 3000 professionally trained staff, who deliver more than 50 million laboratory tests annually to over 10 million patients and nearly 20,000 physician customers. LifeLabs has operated in Canada for nearly 50 years. Today it is owned by Borealis Infrastructure, a global leader in infrastructure investing, with assets in energy, transportation and infrastructure buildings, including long-term care facilities and hospitals, pipelines and telecommunications. For information, visit www.lifelabs.com.

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For more information, contact:

Jerome Quenneville                                         Norm Berberich
President and CEO                                          Senior Manager, Communications
519-843-2010 (x200)                                       416-675-4530 (x2800)
jquenneville@nwhealthcare.ca                         norman.berberich@lifelabs.com