The new Saint John call centre will be located in the existing Canadian Blood Services building, across from the Regional Hospital. (CBC)

Canadian Blood Services says it will open a new national call centre in Saint John.

The announcement comes just months after the New Brunswick government said it would no longer try to stop CBS from moving blood production from Saint John to Nova Scotia.

The move will result in the loss of 17 full-time positions, but chief operating officer Ian Mumford says the new call centre will offer even more jobs.

"When it reaches it full operation, probably half-way through 2014, this contact centre will have approximately 50 staff," he said.

The new call centre is expected to open next July, with two registered nurses and 16 customer service representatives and be fully operational the following summer, said Mumford.

It will work with the primary centre in Sudbury, Ontario.

The centre will be located in the existing CBS building across from the Saint John Regional Hospital, and will share the space with the blood donor clinic and blood stock holding unit.

Canadian Blood Services announced plans in 2009 to close the blood processing and delivery clinic in Saint John and consolidate operations in Dartmouth.

Doctors raised concerns that blood products wouldn't be able to reach patients in time and lives could be lost.

But Mumford says they'll be monitoring operations once the move takes place, likely late this year or early next year.

"We're confident that those measures, that data, will say that the service we're providing to New Brunswick hospitals and physicians is as good as, or maybe even better, than it is today."

In a written statement the New Brunswick Medical Society said the new system will "rival the best in the country."

The provincial government commissioned KPMG to study whether it should stay with the national agency, create a new agency or partner with another agency, such as as Héma-Québec.

The report, released in 2011, ranked sticking with CBS the highest of the three options, although it stopped short of endorsing any of the options under review.

A subsequent report by Growth Strategies suggested the province would be better off setting up its own independent blood centre.

But in January, Health Minister Madeleine Dubé announced that it would be too costly to go it alone and the government would continue it relationship with Canadian Blood Services.

CBS's announcement that it would be moving the production lab from Saint John to Dartmouth was denounced by politicians and doctors as putting lives at risk.

The provincial government set up a watchdog group to oversee the operations of Canadian Blood Services in order to bring any of New Brunswick's concerns directly to officials at the agency.