The City of Red Deer had the longest wait times at walk-in clinics throughout all of Alberta in 2022, according to a new report from a Canadian tech company.
On Monday, Medimap released its Wait Time Index, which uses data collected from walk-in clinics across Canada that use the company’s software to publish wait times.
The average wait time to see a doctor at a walk-in clinic is Red Deer was 71 minutes, which is almost double the Alberta average.
Provincially, it took patients an average of 34 minutes to see a doctor – this is 16 minutes more than the average in 2021. Calgary had the shortest average wait time in the province at 28 minutes. Meanwhile, the average wait time in Edmonton was 50 minutes.
Nationally, the average wait time in 2022 was 37 minutes – data is only available from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia. All six of these provinces saw individual increases in average wait times.
“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, Medimap CEO.
“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 healthcare professionals to help Canadians find the care they need when they need it.”
Ontario had the shortage average wait times in 2022, with patients waiting 25 minutes to see a physician – six of the top 10 cities with the shortest wait times were in Ontario. But, the average wait time across the entire province still increased by 10 minutes.
Nova Scotia had the longest average wait time at 83 minutes and British Columbia recorded the second-longest at 79 minutes.
More details about the average wait time for walk-in clinics in the six provinces listed can be found in the Medimap Walk-in Clinic Wait Time Index at www.medimap.ca.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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