Williams Lake tops average wait time for walk-in clinics

Williams Lake is one of the top ten cities in Canada for the longest average wait time to get into a walk-in clinic.

Data released on Wednesday by Medimap of walk-in clinic wait times found British Columbians are experiencing some of the highest average wait times in the country (50 minutes), compared to Albertans who are waiting an average of 23 minutes.

The average wait time in Williams Lake is 80 minutes with the highest wait time at 180 minutes in Sidney.

“It was interesting looking at the data and this is the first time this type of data has ever been published. It’s never been available before,” says Medimap CEO and founder, Blake Adam.

“For us, we didn’t really go in with any expectations. It was more just about this is information that we’ve been collecting over the years as a result of the service that we offer to patients across the country, and we thought that it would be interesting and important for the public to be able to see how do provinces and communities in those provinces compare when it comes to access to care in the community.”

Adam adds that they are not prepared to speculate or draw conclusions on what makes one province or city compared to another have longer wait times.

“I think there are a lot of variables that impact wait times in a given community at clinics, and for us, it was really just about putting the information out there so that it’s available to the people that decision-makers and the health systems that can impact them.”

Medimap was launched in White Rock in September 2015. Its’ mission is to improve the Canadian health care system by empowering patients with information and tools to help them find the fastest access to care in their community.

“About 70 percent of the clinics across Canada now are using the platform and updating their wait time every half hour throughout the day to the website, and hopefully in the not too distant future a hundred percent,” Adam says.