About Medical Laboratories

If your health professional has ordered laboratory tests for you, you will be given a requisition that you need to take with you to a laboratory or a specimen collection centre. Your health professional may be able to suggest a local laboratory or a specimen collection centre to visit.

Some hospitals have outpatient specimen collection centres. Please contact your local hospital to find out if outpatient laboratory services are available, their location, and hours. 

You may also visit a specimen collection centre, operated by community laboratories. The community laboratories, that offer publicly funded or OHIP insured laboratory services, websites are listed below. Visit the sites and follow the instructions to find the location nearest you:

All CMLTO registrants use the designation MLT. The majority of medical laboratory technologists (MLTs) work in hospital laboratories. Licensed laboratories are comprised of hospital laboratories, community/private laboratories, public health laboratories and Canadian Blood Services laboratory.

Licensed Laboratories and Specimen Collection Centres

The Accreditation Canada website maintains a list of all accredited facilities/laboratories in Ontario. Please click here to view the list of accredited laboratories.  

Four pieces of legislation ensure the people managing and working in Ontario’s licensed laboratories are accountable to the highest standards of care:

Please note that there are provisions that would allow the Minister of Health to designate a hospital to provide community laboratory services, but these have not yet been proclaimed. 

Members of the public can have confidence that licensed laboratories:

  • must have a qualified laboratory director
  • have the qualifications of their supervisor and other laboratory staff defined by legislation
  • are checked regularly to see that they have appropriate laboratory staff, processes and equipment to perform the classes of tests for which the license is approved
  • must have a quality program in place and keep records that can be viewed by laboratory government inspectors at any time.

If a lab is licensed, the license will be posted in a conspicuous place. If the license is not posted, you may be at an unlicensed laboratory. You can ask to see the laboratory license.

Unlicensed Laboratories

As a health care consumer, be aware that some unlicensed specimen collection centres and laboratories – found in medical and infertility clinics, physician’s offices, forensic, and occupational health centres – are not licensed and therefore are not required to meet the same rigorous standards as licensed facilities.

If you are concerned that your local laboratory or specimen collection centre is unlicensed, simply tell your health professional that you would like to have your specimen taken at a licensed facility. 

Lab Licensing and Inspection Service 

The Laboratory and Specimen Collection Centre Licensing Act, 1991 (LSCCLA) and its regulations, provide a framework for the licensing and operations of laboratories and specimen collection centres in Ontario. The CMLTO may send complaints to the Ministry of Health for matters regarding compliance with the LSCCLA, including compliance with the quality management program described in the LSCCLA.  To file a complaint about a laboratory or specimen collection centre, please contact the Laboratories and Diagnostics Branch of the Ministry of Health at LaboratoryLicensing@ontario.ca