Wait time for physician at a walk-in clinic in Oakville among province’s highest

Being treated at a walk-in clinic in Ontario is taking longer and Oakville is right up there when it comes to cities with the longest average wait times.

Patients in the province had to wait an average of 25 minutes to see a doctor at a walk-in clinic last year.

That’s 10 minutes longer than in 2021, according to the latest data provided by Medimap, a Canadian tech company that matches patients with walk-in clinics, pharmacists and allied health professionals to simplify access to care.

With an average wait time of 22 minutes, Oakville sits the   fourth highest when it comes to spending time in the waiting room.

The city of London had far and above the longest wait at a walk-in clinic at 80 minutes on average. That’s almost double the 46-minute waiting time in St. Catharines.

Windsor, at 29 minutes, and Mississauga, at 21, rounded out the top-five cities with the longest wait in the province.

“The drastic increase in average wait times at walk-in clinics provides further evidence that healthcare systems across the country are struggling to provide adequate care,” said Thomas Jankowski, CEO of Medimap.

“While there is no single solution to fix this problem, our mission at Medimap is to work with healthcare providers, including walk-in clinics, pharmacies, hospitals and allied health-care professionals to help Canadians find the care they need when they need it.”

While the average wait time in the province increased from 2021, it remains a good deal below the national wait time average of 37 minutes.

Ontario had six of the top 10 cities with the shortest average wait times in Canada. Brampton patients waited just 10 minutes on average.

The longest waiting times to see a doctor were in Nova Scotia with patients waiting 83 minutes.