Walk-in clinic wait times online

Hamilton patients now have a way to check wait times at some local walk-in clinics online before venturing out of their homes.

British Columbia-based web resource Medimap.ca, which launched in Hamilton this week, offers a way for residents to look up an estimated time for how long they’ll have to spend in the waiting room at their nearby clinic. It also shows when one has reached capacity or closed early for the day.

Medimap co-founder Blake Adam said the idea stemmed from his own experiences, like times he tried to visit a walk-in clinic only to find it had closed early for the day.

“My business partner and I, we saw it as a really simple solution to a lot of the frustrations faced by people that don’t have a family doctor and are trying to get sameday access to care,” said Adam, who started the company in 2015.

Wait times are updated throughout the day by clinic staff, who hopefully won’t have to answer as many phone calls from patients wondering about the current wait, he added.

Patients can access the site using any device by visiting medimap.ca and inserting their location.

In the Hamilton area, 12 clinics have signed up out of what the company believes is a total of 34 in the area.

Adam said he believes more than 40 per cent of the 1,600 to 1,800 walk-in clinics across Canada are using the program.

The company’s current focus is on expanding the program, which is now used in six provinces, he said.

In Vancouver, they’re in the early stages of a pilot project that allows patients to make a request to get their name on a walk-in clinic waiting list using Medimap.