Wait time in Ontario walk-in clinics doubled more in 2023, may get worse, expert says

If you find yourself waiting more than an hour to be seen at Toronto’s walk-in clinics, you’re far from alone — in fact, it’s become the new average.

New data released by healthcare booking and online search tool Medimap found the average wait times of walk-in clinics are ballooning across Canada, with the largest increases recorded in Ontario.

The company sourced its data from clinics that use its software — roughly 70 per cent of walk-in clinics countrywide, it says — in six provinces, including Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nova Scotia.

Here’s what you need to know.
What’s the wait time for a walk-in clinic in Ontario?

In 2023, patients were waiting an average 59 minutes to be seen by a doctor in Ontario’s walk in clinics, according to Medimap’s report — more than double the 25 minute wait time the previous year.

While this makes the province the second-shortest in terms of wait times of the six provinces surveyed (the average wait time across Canada nearly doubled to 68 minutes in 2023), Ontario also exhibited the largest increase.

For Medimap CEO Thomas Jankowski, the results came as little surprise. He noted that nurses have experienced surging turnover rates following the pandemic as emergency rooms contend with 20-hour-long wait times amid a doctor shortage.

All of this, on top of a family doctor drought that’s left more than two million Ontarians without one, has resulted in soaring demand for walk-in clinics, Jankowski explained.

 

 

 

 

“It’s really a culmination of so many things happening right now — even some of the things we’re seeing right now have been caused by things that have happened three or four years earlier,” he continued. “And I think just we’re just catching up the trends.”

Toronto saw the longest wait times in the province with an average 72 minutes, while Brampton had the shortest wait times at just 37 minutes.

While Jankowski forecasts conditions to eventually improve, citing Ontario expanding the number of ailments pharmacists can treat as taking a load off walk-in clinics, he believes “it’s going to get much worse before it gets better.”

Ballooning wait times in walk-in clinics across Canada

In 2023, the average wait times for Canadian walk-in clinics rose to 68 minutes, up from the 37 minute average in 2022.

B.C. had the longest wait time countrywide at 93 minutes, up from 79 the previous year. Next came Nova Scotia with a 72 minute average — the only province to lower its wait time year-over year, given its 2022 average of 83 minutes.

Saskatchewan logged an average 71 minute wait time in 2023, compared to 51 minutes in 2022. Alberta had an average 66 minute-long wait, up from 34 minutes.

 

 

Manitoba had the quickest time of the six provinces, with an average 45 minute wait — up from 31 minutes the previous year.

Jankowski pointed to inefficiencies in the health care system as one reason for Canada’s recent turmoil, like patients clogging up the ER for non-emergencies. But a recent Star investigation found the vast majority of people in Ontario’s ERs need to be there.

Instead, doctors say much of the delays were caused by an inadequate number of in-patient beds, forcing some admitted patients to take up needed spots in the ER instead of being moved to the wards.

“There doesn’t seem to be a solution in sight, at least not in 2024,” Jankowski said. “Perhaps some minor incremental improvements — but there’s no silver lining.”

 

This article was reported by The Star