Shoppers opening its first medical clinic
Dufferin and Lawrence location is first of three coming to the Toronto area, firm says
Shoppers Drug Mart is getting into the medical clinic business.
The drugstore giant is officially opening its first “Health Clinic by Shoppers” on Wednesday at its Lawrence Avenue West and Dufferin Street retail location.
The clinic has five family physicians who are taking on new patients. Appointments can be booked online. Walkins are also permitted, but due to COVID-19 restrictions you must book in advance for now. Patients can be seen either at the clinic or virtually.
“So many people do not have access to a family physician, so this is what really drove us, and that of course became even more of an issue during COVID,” said Theresa Firestone, senior vice-president of health and wellness at Shoppers Drug Mart, in an interview with the Star.
“It just seemed a natural fit with all the other work we’re doing in the health and wellness space.”
The Dufferin and Lawrence clinic location — partly chosen due to the increase in housing developments in the area — is the first of three clinics Shoppers plans to open in the next year in the Greater Toronto Area. Firestone said one of the other locations will be in the downtown core.
There are already clinics in Shoppers locations across the country, but those are all tenant clinics, with Shoppers basically acting as those clinics’ landlord, Firestone said.
This marks the first time that Shoppers will be managing its own clinic, Firestone said. The clinic’s staff will be Shoppers’ employees, aside from the physicians who will be following the normal process of billing OHIP for services rendered to patients. Shoppers will also cover the administrative and supply costs of the clinic.
“The focus has been getting people access to care in a really timely way,” she said.
CLINIC continued on B7
Firestone said Shoppers will also look into expanding its clinic model across the country in the future.
“There are so many changes at the moment, COVID has presented opportunities and challenges for a model like this, so we will look at the success of the model and how best to expand,” she said.
Asked whether clinics will always be placed next to a Shoppers in the hopes that patients will fill their new prescriptions with the chain, Firestone said it is not a strict requirement, “however as we have a broad network of stores across Canada it is reasonable to expect that there will always be Shoppers nearby.”
That said, patients will have the choice to fill out their prescription at any pharmacy.
Firestone said COVID-19 presented some unique challenges as the company was gearing up to open the first clinic. Changes that have been implemented include limiting the numbers of seats in the waiting room, and placing Plexiglas barriers between chairs.
The company also put together a team of experts and set up a physician advisory board to inform the design of the new clinic model.
Plans for the future include the potential addition of other clinic services, including physiotherapy and on-site laboratories.
“Perhaps even more so because of COVID, it’s a challenge trying to get access to a family physician for those things that need to be seen in person or virtually,” Firestone said. “The idea is that you have health care.” The clinic’s hours are Monday to Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with plans to add weekend hours in the fall.
“The focus has been getting people access to care in a really timely way.”
THERESA FIRESTONE SHOPPERS DRUG MART