Patients hoping to see a doctor at a walk-in clinic in B.C. have some of the longest wait times in the country, according to Medimap.
The website, founded in White Rock in 2015, lets patients see how long wait times are for walk-in clinics around the province.
In a report released Wednesday, the website found that British Columbians waited an average of 43 minutes to see a doctor between Nov. 1, 2018, and Oct. 31, 2019, a time that’s 41 per cent higher than the national average. By contrast, Albertans wait 25 minutes, Ontarians wait 26 minutes while in Nova Scotia, a patient might wait 55 minutes. The national average is 31 minutes.
The longest wait time was found in Sidney, B.C., where patients waited an average of 180 minutes to see a walk-in clinic doctor.
The report found seven out of the top 10 longest wait times in Canada are in B.C., with Sidney topping the list at 180 minutes and Pitt Meadows second in the province at 100 minutes. Vancouver Island had especially bad wait times with people in Langford waiting 98 minutes, those in Saanichton waiting 90, Victoria waiting 82 minutes and Nanaimo residents waiting for 79 minutes.
Rounding out the list of worst wait times in B.C. were Hartley Bay, located on the central coast, at 87 minutes, and Williams Lake and Maple Ridge at 79 minutes each.
Some Lower Mainland wait times came in well under the provincial average, with waits of just 20 minutes in West Vancouver and Richmond, 25 minutes in Delta, 27 minutes in Abbotsford an 28 in Burnaby. Vancouverites waited an average of 44 minutes, just above the provincial average.
“Many Canadians don’t have access to a family doctor and, for those who do, it can often take weeks to get an appointment,” said founder and CEO Blake Adams.
“Walk-in clinics fill an important gap in our health care system.”
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