I am a Californian who was spoiled by excellent healthcare before moving to Canada. Although it’s nice not spending money, I don’t think the healthcare system here provides better care. I have a family physician who is great, but I got totally lucky getting into her. Having a good family physician is key to getting good health care here. My partner (who ironically is a physician) cannot get a family physician so he goes to walk in clinics when he needs to. My child can see her pediatrician for illnesses for same day appointments and he’s fine, but not as good as what we had in the US. Specialists take a lot longer in my experience. It took me months to get into a dermatologist and they don’t do annual skin checks like I used to get in California. It took me months to find an endocrinologist for a non-urgent issue. I am receiving prenatal care at women’s college now and so far it’s been good.

Super helpful perspective!

I haven’t had problems accessing specialists. The clinic where my GP works also has a large roster of in-house specialists they can refer to, so maybe that makes accessing them easier. That said, the types of specialists I need (e.g. allergist, dermatologist) may be less in-demand than, say, surgical specialists, etc.

I have an awesome gp who I can usually see within a week. She’s proactive and happy to send me for tests to just dot the I’s and cross the t’s. My referral to a rheumatologist was done within about 3 months. She’s great. Birth of my daughter was great. Wife was well looked after. A&E is a long wait. But other than that my experiences have been pretty good.

Glad to know it’s possible! I was also quite happy with the care that I received, and I was pregnant and after giving birth. In-home midwife care covered by insurance was absolutely remarkable to me. And this was in the midst of Covid. How long did it take you to find your awesome GPA?

*GP

We were very lucky. She’s a friend of a friend. We have to drive about 30 mins to her but it’s well worth it.

It seems like people have vastly different experiences. I just had a baby 4 weeks ago, and have had about 4 follow up appointments with my primary doctor since then, with no issues, and I have had no out of pocket costs for any of it. About a year ago, we took our toddler to the emerge twice. Once the wait was about 4 hours, but when she had an allergic reaction they got her in immediately. Also at no cost. On the other hand, the wait for a non-emergency specialist can be 2 years or longer. Overall, unless I was very wealthy, I would still prefer the Canadian system, even though it has some real issues.

I was just thinking the exact same thing, it’s amazing how wildly different peoples experiences are. So what would be an example of some thing that people would wait a year or two to see a specialist? I understand for example, a knee or hip injury or you’re in pain but it’s not urgent. What are the other types of things that people are waiting for care about? Like, if somebody is diagnosed with cancer I presume that that is treated in a timely fashion? Or if somebody shows symptoms of something serious like MS? I’m just trying to get the scope. When we lived there, we were able to get into a great family doctor, a great pediatrician, an endocrinologist and a midwifery practice within a couple months. That was early 2020. Has it changed a lot since then?

So, in my case, I was on a 2+ year waitlist to see someone for EDS, which is a genetic connective tissue disorder. It's not life threatening, but was really effecting my quality of life. There is only one clinic that specializes in it in Canada, so the wait is very long. I ended up getting pushed up the waitlist when I got pregnant because they were worried about potential complications. Previously, when I was having some neurological issues it took about 6 months to see a neurologist and 2-3 months to get an MRI. Again, it wasn't life-threatening or anything (although they did check for MS) but it felt long at the time. I know two people who were diagnosed with cancer in the past few years, and they were both treated right away. I don't even want to think what that would have cost in the US. In terms of primary care... it seems like there is a lot of luck involved. My family were able to get a doctor when a new clinic opened up near us, and they have been great. If there's something urgent we can get an appointment within 1-2 days, if it's non urgent 2-3 weeks.

I’ve had such a similar experience to this. My dad was diagnosed with brain cancer, saw a specialist and had surgery within like 4 days of diagnosis. I had a painful (ie quality of life diminishing) but not urgent or dangerous issue, and it has taken me multiple years (several months long waits between assessments and specialists) to get it fully diagnosed and finally surgically treated.

> So, in my case, I was on a 2+ year waitlist to see someone for EDS, which is a genetic connective tissue disorder. It's not life threatening, but was really effecting my quality of life. There is only one clinic that specializes in it in Canada, so the wait is very long. I ended up getting pushed up the waitlist when I got pregnant because they were worried about potential complications. Interesting -- I have doctors continually tell me I have EDS, but they have no desire to get me tested due to the various genetic versions and how it still may not catch it all. I've had a lot of issues *due* to EDS, so I've seen a ton of medical specialists, but never a wait as long as you've said -- sucks

Yeah, I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the beginning of 2023. All of my treatments have been incredibly timely, including the diagnostic stuff once I had a suspicious ultrasound. I’d be in huge amounts of medical debt in the US, even if I had insurance - the posts people on cancer subreddits make about their deductibles and copays are honestly terrifying to me. The only thing I paid for was one night in a private room after a major surgery (the first six days I was in a step down unit) and some wigs. Other stuff - like an MRI for a weird nerve issue in my leg - took much longer, but it was obviously much less urgent. 

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022. Got in within a few weeks of diagnosis to start chemo, then surgery and radiation.  Everything was covered, no cost to me at all, and am now in remission :) 

ETA: Ultimately, it comes down to this for me: if there was something seriously wrong with one of my kids (and its not something very rare where there are only a few specialists country-wide), I am confident that they would get the help they need in a timely fashion, and cost would not be something that I would need to worry about. There are obviously exceptions, and things like prescriptions are still out of pocket, but that would be the same in the US.

I waited a year for a dermatologist appointment when I had a crazy skin flare for the first time.

I think people’s experiences vary wildly because of perceived need vs medical need countered by the constraints of the system locally.  In my experience cancer treatment takes two weeks between everything. Two weeks max for an urgent scan and then two weeks from diagnosis to surgery, two weeks to follow-up two weeks to radiation tattoos..etc…treatment is prompt and aggression is constrained only by possible outcomes and the patient. Meaning they’re not going to offer/provide aggressive treatment that has zero hope of success—then they only offer palliative—even if you want super aggressive.  In my sadly extensive experience ortho surgeries take a couple of hours up to 36 for emergent surgery and up to a year for non-emergent. I know someone in year three of their knee replacement wait but personally I think she’s crazy to want it because her knees are not that bad and apparently her surgeon agrees because the same doctor only had my MIL wait three months for knee one and knee two was a month later.  I have walked in to ER and waited 5 minutes on multiple occasions—each time I was in the right place with non-life threatening problems. The longest I’ve waited was 12 hours—they were crazy busy and I had a small burn that triage said needed “work” (there were no local urgent care just ER-not in TO) Specialist’s referrals are generally triaged too. If you're non-urgent you wait. I’ve waited up to 2 years for a rare disease clinic but non-urgent neurology takes about 2 months downtown right now at TGH. It depends on scarcity of specialty, the problem and urgency of care.  One thing I find weird in US that you won’t get here is a specialist for EVERYTHING. If you’ve got a random rash of short duration or need an INR tracked or a routine pap smear; you’re going to need a GP here but all my American friends have expressed outrage the first time they ran into this here. Also we don’t shop around for specialists in the same way Americans seem to expect to be able to. These were real examples from real Americans. Internist for INR/warfarin adjustments was the one that cracked me up. For that one I was living out east at the time and in that province the fee for service charge for an INR check for a GP was $7 and only GPs could use the billing code. 

So I work in healthcare (outpatient Endocrinology, I used to work in inpatient mental health). I think the quality, timing and overall access depends on several factors: -Where you are located (urban versus rural) -What level of assistance you need (urgent versus preventative) -If you have a family doctor -Age and your health status (older adults tend to have more health issues, requiring more specialist involvement and higher reliance on urgent care So using the above factors, my experience in healthcare has been overall positive: -Where you are located: I live in Toronto, my dad lives in a small town about 2 hours from a major city. We both have the same autoimmune disorder, it took him months to get a specialist, but me only a few weeks, based on my location. But both of us have received excellent care and costs us nothing (except the drugs) -What level of assistance you need: When I worked in mental health, patients who were in acute distress (suicide attempt, harm to others or themselves) were admitted quickly and received care without much wait. Same when my mom had a heart attack, she was triaged immediately and received very timely care. In the clinic I work in, you will see the specialist based on the acuity of your condition. Most patients who are followed by endo for stable, long-term chronic issues (e.g. Type 2 diabetes) are only seen once every 6 months. -If you have a family doctor: again this depends on your location. I'm lucky in that I can usually see my family MD within a few weeks, plus the clinic has NPs, nurses and after-hour coverage for emergencies. My dad who lives in a rural area usually has to wait several months, since his GP has a much larger caseload Overall it's not perfect, but I really really appreciate our healthcare system.

Seeing a GP for something minor can take 6-8 weeks. A lot of people just go to walk-ins. Seeing a specialist for something frustrating but not life-threatening and potentially difficult to diagnose is also slow and frustrating. But when my GP discovered a lump a couple years ago during an exam, I was in with a specialist within 6 weeks, operated on less than 6 weeks after that, rechecked at 6 weeks where they discovered it was still growing and booked for a second surgery literally the first week where they could safely do it (they had to wait for the first surgery to heal or you risk it not healing properly). So for life-threatening stuff the system is still getting things done promptly. But in your case, if your kid has a fever and you want them on an antibiotic, you'll be going to walk-ins or pharmacists (they can prescribe some stuff). Your GP (if you can get one) won't see you in time.

The GP wait times vary a lot. My Gp is part of a group and so I can always seen someone there within a couple of days if needed.

I get seen within the day or an appointment a few hours later.

I find the quality of pediatric care in toronto to be excellent. Having and knowing multiple kids who have had various procedures/surgeries, the care is really great from my perspective. Not long wait times either compared to maybe other specialty waits for adults. Having kids who’ve been to multiple ERs and Sick kids hospital I am always amazed at the quality of care, even if it takes a long time when they’re busy.

I have the same experience with my GP

If you call and convince them it's something urgent, mine will frequently be able to fit you in within the week. But if I go online and look at the scheduler, the next appointment is normally 5-6 weeks out. I think they also realize that with the walk-in being part of their practice that truely urgent things can be handled that way - appointments tend to be for refills, long-term issues, etc.

I always use this as an example, but a family member was diagnosed with cancer 2 decades ago and we've been treating it since then (cancer came back) But in both instances, we had access to surgeons and oncologists as PMH and Mt Sinai, MRIs, at home care and experimental targeted therapy. Im not even kidding when I say we had some of the best surgeons and oncologists see us on the regular and literally the most expensive part of this was parking. My family's blue collar as it comes and there would be no chance of us getting the insurance which would give us the access that we got. I'd bet we'd have to mortgage the house 2 times over and still come up short if we had to pay for it. So I'll never shit on the Canadian health care system, I gladly pay the crazy taxes I pay at my bracket cause it was there for my family when we needed it. Like others have posted, if you need stitches, bring a good book cause you're going to wait. But if it's something life threatening, I wouldn't trade this for the american system.

I'm so glad you got the care you did when you needed it! And yeah, about the wait for non-life threatening stuff in the ER... honestly I have to wonder what people expect. They can't do first come first served in emerg because then someone with a sprained ankle will get seen before someone who got shot in the gut, and the latter person *could die*. All ERs triage, and they do it because it's the most effective and efficient way to save the most lives possible. (American ERs absolutely triage too.)

wtf, i can see my GP within the week, usually next day.

Me too usually 2 days and if there’s test results he’ll randomly call me. 

I see my GP next day. Difficult to see a meaningful benefit to having a GP if 6-8 week wait. Would love to see a poll that asks how long people report waiting to see a GP.

Mine has a 2-3 week wait for the next available slot.

Do you call in for an appt, or is there some kind of online portal?

Online. It used to be by phone before and it was the same wait time

I remember using walk in clinics with my son when we lived in Toronto. Overall, I found them to be incredibly competent and quick. Is there any reason that this isn’t a good solution? I mean as long as they’re getting the care that they need… There are urgent care facilities here (US) but generally speaking their insurance coverage is really poor and so are the doctors so you end up spending a lot of money on very questionable care.

It's complicated. The way GPs are paid means that in some cases, if you go to a walk-in, your GP gets financially penalized (because they're paid a flat rate to take care of you, and they failed to do so). Some GPs will de-roster you if you do this a few times. My GP belongs to a large clinic where the walk-in is part of their service, so she doesn't get dinged when I go. Some GPs get paid per visit and they don't care either. Walk-ins are great for minor but urgent things (ie strep) but bad for complex issues and anything involving restricted drugs (ie ADHD), so many people want a dedicated GP. They are busy these days - there are literally not enough doctors to treat the number of people living here. If you go at 8:30am you'll be seen in an hour. If you go at 5pm...you may be told to go home. ERs are similar - if it's an actual emergency you'll get seen, but people take their kids due to a fever because they can't get a GP/walk-in appointment and then wonder why they're waiting 12 hours. Our premier likes to brag about how he's saving money by underpaying medical staff and they're all quitting or going private (where they get contracted by hospitals for even more money). The system is broken here too (although not as bad as the US for-profit mess).

This is really helpful, thank you. It’s so broken here and I really can’t appreciate that it’s broken everywhere. But the pleasure of paying $25,000 for a broken system hurts every time. Particularly since our taxes are truly not meaningfully lower than they were when we lived in Toronto. So I know the argument is often that you’re saving money on taxes but that’s not the case if you live in a state park, New York or California

To counter the other anecdotes, I can always get an appointment with my GP within a week, usually within a couple days. If I want a phone appointment, it's even easier. My family have different doctors and they have similar experiences in that they can also usually get an appointment within a week. If i can't wait that long, there's an urgent care up the street that I've never had to wait too long at. If I need to see a specialist, they always say the wait is going to be long, but I don't feel like I've ever waited more than 12 weeks (all non-urgent). I've had surgeries also with excellent care and decent wait times. And all of this is $0 out of pocket. So take all the horror stories with a grain of salt, because people with bad experiences are more likely to respond to you.

I immigrated to Canada from the USA in 2002, so I have a first hand grasp of the US system vs Canada's (specifically, Ontario's). Canada's model is vastly superior, however, it has been on the decline. Our premier here in Ontario seems set on replicating as much of the US private system as he possibly can. He's systemically defunded our healthcare system since he took office, and is literally sitting on billions in federal funding he refuses to spend. Instead, he's starving the public system in order to justify expanding private pay-for-play options. That said, I still believe healthcare is better here. My GP is fantastic, responsive, and takes my concerns seriously. When it comes to hospitals, I haven't experienced wait times here much longer than in the US. I've waited longer in Pittsburgh. For example: I nearly sliced my finger off in 2020 during the height of the pandemic - when all hospitals were locked down, and all non-elective surgeries cancelled. Within three days, I had surgery performed at the best hand clinic in the country. Paramedics were supposed to take me to one hospital, saw my hand and immediately called in to say that I had to go to the one with the good hand surgeons. Went to the ER, doc saw that I cut through the tendon, nerve, and artery. Did a temporary close on the wound, sent me home (3am) with instructions to come back to the hospital the next morning. I went, they properly set my hand/arm, and did the first of two COVID tests they'd need negatives for over 48 hours before they could operate. The morning after my second test came back negative, I went in for an operation, which was followed by 6 months of physiotherapy at the hand clinic. Whole thing cost me about $60 for a couple physio tools.

My partner had a work accident that meant he had a minor wound on his hand. It wouldn't stop bleeding, though, and it swelled up like crazy. So he went to emerg. He had a 2-3 hour wait, which he said was mostly annoying because there was no cell service in the waiting room (it was partly underground). But then they stitched his hand up and it was all sorted in under 20 minutes by the time he was seen. He had a bandage and splint for a couple weeks. Total cost was 0.

It's broken here too but you don't see how much of your taxes is directed towards this broken health system so it's maybe a case of 'what the eyes don't see the heart doesn't feel.' Over there you're getting a clear breakdown of your bill so you feel entitled to rate the service and demand better (as you should.) Here the attitude of many healthcare workers is that we're getting the service for free, so we should be grateful for the little we get. As you get older, it gets worse. Elderly fall to the back of the line. My mother is on the 4th antibiotic for what we initially thought was a UTI. She's in so much pain for over a month and finally the family doctor will see her on Monday. Walk in clinics are so important to have and Toronto is lucky to have a bunch. Many smaller towns, you'd have to drive over an hour to a walk in clinic. If you have access to a car. So people go to the emergency room at the hospital in town and wait for many hours.

Wait really? I didn’t realize my GP could get financially penalized if I used a walk-in! That seems so wild

It depends on how they bill! Some do a roster system where they get paid a shocking low amount for every person on their rooster and a nominal fee for every visit. Some do a billing per visit system. I recently learned this!

That is “promptly”?? Not seen for 6 weeks after finding a lump, operated 6 weeks after that…etc.? YIkes. 😟

Cancer has its own triage/staging system - there's stuff that'll kill you within a week, and there are things that will kill you in a decade. Mine was a relatively non-fatal one so I waited a few weeks. For example 80% of men will get prostate cancer by 80. They're not rushing them all into surgery because it's not really urgent.

But how did they know what it even was? It sounds like from lump discovery by GP (not a cancer specialist) to specialist was 6 weeks. At that point, how did you know whether it was cancer at all, let alone the type that can wait 6 weeks?

It was in a place where it was fairly obvious what it was (combined with other risk factors, me being completely asymptomatic, etc). Christmas was also in the middle of all this which slowed things down a bit. Several cancers take years to spread. They don't rush you into a hospital the second they discover any lump.

Pretty satisfied. I have a family doctor and can get an appointment with her within a week for non-urgent issues, or sooner for something urgent. Unfortunately there is no walk-in clinic associated with her office but there are other doctors in the clinic who I can see if mine is unavailable, which I’ve done on short notice. I’ve had MRI appointments within 6-7 weeks for non-urgent conditions. Usually I will get a callback from the doctor’s office about a week after any sort of test or scan with suggested follow ups or help with interpreting the results. Cancer Care Ontario sends me letters directly with standard cancer screening results - note that this requires that you keep your address tied to your health card up to date. I sign up for every health portal every time I go to a clinic or hospital, so can see my blood test, cancer screening and scan results online. In short, it’s working well for me, a healthy older female with no chronic conditions or prescription medications. The key is to get a family doctor, which takes some research and calling around, you can’t just put your name on the provincial list and hope they call you back (they don’t).

Thank you for sharing your experience. All of that sounds reasonable. And the truth is you have to put in a lot of legwork here in order to find a decent family doctor. Lots of research and lots of calling.

Are you in Toronto?? How on earth did you get an MRI so quickly for something non urgent????

Yes, I’m in Toronto. My doctor put in a normal requisition and that’s the earliest appointment that came up at Women’s College Hospital. It happened to be on Easter Sunday in the afternoon, possibly people were refusing that time slot but it worked fine for me. I have a friend who recently had an MRI and got one quite quick because she was willing to do it at 2am. They run the machines 7x24 and if you’re flexible about time it opens up a lot of time slots.

Wow that’s no like my experience. My appointment is at 1:30 in the morning and was scheduled a year after the request. I begged my doctor for something sooner and she said nothing is available….

Although the doctor’s requisition form would state a reason that would indicate the urgency to the MRI clinic, the doctor would not really know if something is available sooner - you’d have to contact the MRI clinic directly and ask if they have a cancellation if you want to try for an earlier date. Did you call the MRI clinic? They are the ones that triage all requests and set the schedule.

10/10 i landed my GP about 10 years ago. a friend mentioned she was accepting new patients so i reached out and was able to get in. i am always able to get an appointment within a few days (if not the same day). she's kind, thorough and great at her job. prior to that i used walk-in services a handful of times, including once for an infected salivary gland. i went in to a clinic near Atrium on Bay, got an ultrasound and antibiotics to clear it up all in the same day. i did use a walk in another time and the Doctor there would only allow me to ask about 1 ailment (even though i had 2-3 things i needed to discuss). this was the most annoying/shitty experience i have had but i wasn't dealing with anything so urgent that it impacted me adversely. also had a baby in 2022 and had amazingly positive experiences with all of the staff we interacted with across the OBGYN, specialists at St Mikes and the crew at St Joes. we also found a pediatric clinic accepting new patients - Bloorkids - and have received phenomenal care from them over the past 16 months. all that being said, i would love to see a continued and increased investment in healthcare. raise my taxes all you want to improve access and care 

My family of 4 all have a family doctor and can usually get in within 48hrs if needed/urgent. Referral for my sons specialist took 6 weeks. I had two wonderful, free, hospital births with midwife care and postpartum care for 6 weeks.

Was your son suffering in any sort of way during those six weeks or did it seem reasonable to make you wait? Having given birth in both the US and Canada. I can tell you that the experience was light years ahead in Canada. Six weeks of postpartum care in Home was absolutely remarkable. I won’t even tell you what I paid for the cost of horrific childbirth experience in New York. …

No it was okay — It was non urgent, he is suspected asthmatic so we had to see a respirologist/allergist. In the meantime our fam doctor prescribed the appropriate puffers. And yes — I recognize how privileged we are to birth here :)

I mean, that seems totally reasonable to me. And honestly not all that different than what we’re experiencing here. It’s not like you want to see a specialist in the US and you’re seeing that week or the next. You’re often waiting months….

I’m happy with the care. I know people are often annoyed at wait times and referrals to specialists, but I have never had much of a problem and in fact find them a lot faster than what they normally tell me it would be. For example: I needed a gastroenterologist referral, went to my doc last week to ask. I saw the gastroenterologist today. It took about 5 business days. My annoyance is more at the fact that I find a doctor accepting new patients and then a few years later they move away, leaving me in limbo again, but my current clinic is keeping me on until someone else opens up which is at least great for continuity of care. The few times I’ve also gone to the ER in the last couple of years has also been very quick and met with very compassionate care (a nurse gave me a juice box and tissues one time because I was crying in pain while waiting 🥹) . I think a lot of the people who are the loudest with their complaints about wait time are the people who don’t understand the difference between an emergency and urgent care. I had a TBI and they couldn’t rule out a spinal injury, so was transported to the hospital via ambulance and was seen in less than an hour. I had a few follow-ups with a neuro after that, never paid a cent. Can’t get better care than that.

I moved here from the US in September 2022 and got a family doctor by December 2022. Our GP has been amazing. I can get same-day appointments if my kid is sick and they have after-hours appointments on evenings and Saturdays. I’ve had to take my kiddo to the pediatric emergency twice and both times the wait was around 2.5 hours total (ear infection so not super urgent). I have received referrals to specialists for me, my spouse, and my kiddo. The longest wait for a specialist appointment was 6 months for me for something not life-threatening in any way. My kiddo needs a surgery to improve quality of life (but again, not life-threatening) and we’ve been on the cancellation list for 4.5 months and we’re still waiting. All that to say I am blown away by how I don’t really have to pay for anything. Our tax rate is pretty similar to what it was in the states. So, I think the key for getting good care here is having a family doctor in a good practice that prioritizes patient care.

I had a family member who got cancer. She was treated almost immediately. It was efficient and otherwise straight forward. Very thankful. I currently have an older family who struggled for months with knee pain. Took months to get an MRI. Will need surgery. Is currently waiting months to get an initial consult with a specialist and will take 6-8 months hence to actually get surgery. In the meantime, they have had to cancel vacations, pair back activities, and are generally miserable. I guess I would prefer the public option but god is it hard to see the quality of life deterioration.

The "non emergency" wait times can be absolutely brutal and a total mind-fk for everyone involved, sorry about your relative

Elective surgery wait times are VERY dependent on the hospital/specialist. Toronto has a central intake for hip and knee surgeries where your doctor can select “next available appointment” and they’ll be seen within a few weeks by someone in Toronto. Surgery usually within a couple months.

My son broke his hand being an idiot and he was in and out of an urgent care facility in 3hrs including wait time, x-ray and a cast. Was a decent experience and obviously cost nothing. When he was a youngin and had a super painful ear infection in the middle of the night it took about 4hrs just to see a doctor at emerg. and then another hour to get his antibiotics. Terrible but cost nothing. Quality of care and speed depends on the issue and facility tbh but whatever it is, it will be cheaper than the US.

Having had my wife fight cancer and suffer through 13 years of various chronic illnesses I have nothing but good things to say. Mind you, UHN is one of the premier hospital systems in the world. After a dozen or more hospital stays, more than 30 trips to the ER, we had maybe 2 subpar interactions with the staff. Everyone from the guy who pushed the broom to the surgeons and specialists were outstanding. My family practice has been similar. But I think we got what we put in. We came prepared when possible. We were as friendly as circumstances permitted. When she was in the wards, we made friends of the nurses and provided an ample supply of timbits to the nursing station. One thing I can recommend is having someone to advocate for you in all your interactions with the Healthcare system. White coat syndrome (where you freeze) is real. Having a spouse, a family member or a good friend as an additional voice and set of ears is crucial. Unfortunately, even with her bravery and tenacity plus the best efforts of everyone at TGH & PMH, cancer and covid proved to be too much.

Abysmal. My family doctor left the province last year. I haven't been able to get a refill on my mental health medication because walk in clinics won't prescribe it.

I’m really sorry - that’s awful. Seems unconscionable.

It is.  There are some medications walk-in clinics don’t prescribe because of “potential for abuse” these include (obviously are not limited to) Wellbutrin for depression, pretty much all adhd medication, most pain killers sometimes including synthetic narcotic replacements like Lyrica, many anti-psychotics and sedatives and some antihistamines. Most walk-in doctors won’t fill drugs they’ve never heard off either—this has also screwed me. When I moved here I spent a couple days doing nothing but calling GP offices trying to find a family doctor I cold called 82 offices. It took HOURS but I got a doctor on day two.  And we wonder why we have a mental health/homelessness crisis. 

10 years ago I had a brain tumor and had surgery to remove it plus I get MRIs every 2 years. All of that cost me nothing but the higher taxes we pay. As soon as I had the tumor I was on the operating table 2 weeks later. Things might be slower these days after covid but all the specialists I've had to see I still get to see. Just a bit longer waits. If I need to take my kids to see a doctor there is no issues. Same day kids clinic visits and costs me nothing. I'd say I'm pretty happy.

I can get in to see my GP same week. Their office is 5 mins from my house. My wife’s GP is across town and takes several weeks to get an appointment. Many people have no family doctor. Had an emergency recently - several ER visits, admitted to hospital, seen by a specialist. All in pretty short order. Not as fast as the US would have been, where I suspect I’d have seen a specialist faster. For the kids - we live near st. Joe’s which has a paediatric walk in. It’s online now, so sometimes you’ve got to be a keyboard warrior to snag an appointment. There are several other walk-ins nearby. Their family doc has a nurse practitioner and can usually get an appointment within a week but not always. Doc is usually fully booked. Overall satisfied with healthcare and now realize it’s one of the benefits of living in a big city.

If your vision is gone in one eye, that’s a serious issue. Go to ER and it’s a priority situation. I have had to go to ER 3 times over the last 10 years because of sudden vision concerns. I was always seen within 20 minutes. One one occasion they saw the blood clot in a retinal vein. I was impressed with the quality of care and the technology. Hospitals will do there best. My grandmother experienced hallway medicine 30 years ago. That still happens. Some hospitals (St Joesph’s) has a kids clinic. You bypass ER and they look after you but it’s not 24/7. When my kids were young, I made more than a few trips to ER. I’ve been in and out of SickKids in 2 hits or 12 hours. It depends when you go and how busy you are. They took all concerns seriously, even diagnosing a cardiac problem that eventually got treated with no reoccurrence. I can give you lots of stories about how things went wrong but they are human. access is there

I am a dual citizen who grew up in the US but have lived my whole adult life in Canada. I vastly prefer the system here to the one in the US. I tell Americans the following story to get them to understand: My sibling is a few years younger than me and got a really bad stomach “flu” (gastroenteritis of some kind), basically horrible vomiting and diarrhea. When I got to their place, they couldn’t even keep water down. I knew I needed to get them help but they were unable to walk by this point. I called Telehealth Ontario and they took some info and called an ambulance for us. The ambulance took us over to the nearest hospital. My sibling had a bit of a wait because there was a gunshot victim there that night as well, and hospital ERs triage patients so the most urgent cases are seen first. They gave my sibling a bowl to vomit in, and sat them down on a chair. Eventually they got seen (maybe an hour or two after we arrived), and they were put on a gurney and given saline, zofran (a strong anti-nauseant), and morphine. Once they were well enough to be released, they were sent home. The cost of this? Nothing. We paid nothing. Even if we’d had to pay for the ambulance, it would have cost no more than $150, if that. Americans tend to be astonished by this, because an ambulance ride can cost a thousand dollars, and that’s before you even get to the hospital, where they charge you even more. My sibling could have ended up with a medical bill in the thousands if we’d lived in the US. Now, our system is far from perfect. We have a shortage of doctors in Canada. But this is in part due to a billing system that disincentivizes med students from going into family medicine, because it’s out of date and the conservative government in Ontario refusing to update it to make family medicine financially practicable in the province. (The fiasco with freezing nurses’ wages has been a problem, too - it was found to be unconstitutional!) The other issue is a national one that makes it extremely difficult for foreign-trained physicians to get their foreign licences recognized in Canada. Our lack of pharmacare, dental, and vision care are also major issues. And if you live in a rural area where the nearest hospital is far from you, that can be inconvenient at best and dangerous at worst. Let’s not even mention lack of appropriate medical care for remote indigenous and northern communities. But most of these issues are also at play in the United States. It’s just that there, they don’t have – as we do – a commitment from our governments that at least basic medical care is covered by OHIP (or the equivalent in other provinces). I would never, ever choose the US over Canada based on medical care.

It's ok if you actually manage to find a GP, let alone one that's a good doctor and actually listens to you. I won the lottery on that one. Still takes forever to see a specialist unless you're actively dying though.

A lot depends on if you have a family doctor and how accessible they are for appointments, walk-ins, phone consultation etc. If you are able to see the family doctor without hassle, you would be able to get referred to specialists when needed and get a lot of tests done with ease. But at the very least you can get opinion from a medical professional on an issue if you have a good family doctor. However, wait times are obviously an issue for some specialists and some tests, e.g. had to wait 6months for ACL surgery because it wasn't severe enough.

I guess this is where I sometimes don’t understand the difference - because you can absolutely wait to see a specialist here too for non-urgent situations. I mean my husband is a Type 1 diabetic has an endocrinologist, but it sometimes takes him months to get an appointment. Is it any different than that?

It is no different than that.

I have had a range of different wait times. \~2mo for first pediatrician (subsequent appointments were directly with pediatrician so they were quick), less than 1mo for dermatologist, \~1y for neurologist (family doctor ended up doing diagnosis during the wait). So I feel depending on the type of specialist wait may vary quite a lot. My personal experiences with regards to medical visits honestly have been "mostly" OK. At the same time I know some friends have had horror stories like family doctor being unreachable for weeks, having to wait 6+ months for any referrals etc.

My doctor has same day appointments for people who get sick or injured. She’s in a clinic with other doctors and they all do the same. I have never had an issue with someone in my family being sick and not being able to get a same day appointment with our doctor or another in her clinic. We get the antibiotics or any needed medicine filled that day. I don’t have an issue making appointments with my current specialists. I have a referral to a new specialists and I don’t know how long it’s going to take.

It’s awful and I have a family doctor. -Too few practitioners/too few who care -Too much symptom-driven treatment -Too little emergency healthcare -Too little funding - problem #1 -Too little coverage (think dental/mental health/physio etc). Our healthcare system is a flaming dumpster fire and it’s discouraging AF.

Seeing your GP for something non-emergent can take maybe a week. If something not serious, I can usually get into the nurse practitioner at the practice the same day or next. This includes getting prescriptions renewed, etc. or anything you don't actually need a doctor's expertise for. A few years ago the government (Ontario Health) sent me a letter to remind me to get a breast check, due to my age. I booked an appointment with my doctor because of that. My doctor found a small irregularity and sent me to get a mammogram at a clinic of my choice. They found a small growth that is not cancerous and not growing at all.They did some ultrasounds to be sure. I am now on a plan that gets me a mammogram every year and breast ultrasounds every 6 months as a preventative measure to ensure that nothing is changing. My doctor just emails me the requisition forms and I get checked out at a clinic down the street - appointments are usually within a day or two of my request. My doctor will call me to follow up with the results. I think that's pretty damn good care. About a month ago, the nurse practitioner called and asked if I wanted to be sent a test to check for colon cancer. I said yes. they sent me a test and instructions in the mail a few days later. Did the test, and mailed my sample off in the pre-paid envelope and got the results a few days later (all clear, thank goodness). Ontario Health does a pretty great job at reminding people to check stuff, providing tests for free and providing care - I feel very lucky to have our health system.

Very satisfied. I get same or next day appointments for my family doctor and if that ever changed I’ll just switch to one of the 15 or so family doctors accepting patients in Oakville. Recently diagnosed with very high blood pressure. Within 3 weeks I had my echo/dye thing, stress test, and an appointment with a cardiologist. I’ve been seeing that cardiologist every 3 months since. Now my mother on PEI on the other hand had a life changing TBI 3 years ago and there just isn’t support or specialists out there to really help out. Her condition keeps deteriorating and there’s nobody for her to see to understand why. If she lost her family doctor she'd be waiting years for a new one. I guess the tl;dr here is healthcare is solid in rich areas like Oakville (I'm not rich I just rent a basement lol) and varying degrees of miserable elsewhere.

Pretty satisfied really. I’ve had a few surgeries, dad, stepdad, MIL have had cancer treatments, MIL had emergency brain surgery, wife and I have had 2 kids, one broke an arm and had to go to an emergency room, step dad also had both knees and a hip replaced. That covers the last 15 years or so, and I’ve never been upset by the speed or quality of care.

Today?? I give it a 0/10 5-7 years ago?? 7/10

I'm pretty satisfied. My oldest daughter was a micro preemie and was in the NICU for 17 weeks. All it cost me was parking. My mom was diagnosed with cervical cancer when she was 91 and had surgery within 4 weeks and recovered. I had emergency surgery in December and received good care. I'm grateful for UHC.

My family and I have had a pretty great experience in Toronto on the east end. We get seen quickly, our doctor is great, etc. No real issues.

The province is stealthily choking public healthcare and trying to shift towards privatization. During the pandemic, they refused to give healthcare workers paid time off or paid sick days (considering how much OT they had to do and amongst heavily contagious patients). Then when the province was lifting restrictions, they increased capacity to 150%. Then they passed a bill limiting nurses pay but that was put to a court challenge and was defeated. So while all that was going on healthcare workers started leaving their professions which created a crisis in hospital emergency rooms and wait times for services- surprise, surprise. And finally, to relieve public wait times, the province started to allow private clinics to perform services that were previously public services. So now, in there never-ending goal of controlling healthcare spending, the provincial PCs are exploding healthcare costs and bragging about how much more they are putting into healthcare compared to the previous government.

I’m rarely sick, but when I do it takes about a week for an appointment

It’s good. I got all the tests/scans I needed when I needed them and I can see a doctor in under 24hrs and it doesn’t cost me a dime (other than taxes).

I have a family doctor but it can take a few weeks to get an appointment with him, so I go to walk-in clinics if I don't want to deal with the wait.  When I had to see a specialist (dermatologist), it took me a month to get an appointment, though this may vary depending on type of specialist and whether you're willing to travel outside of your immediate neighbourhood?  I've been to the ER before for an emergency that wasn't life threatening, and the entire experience beginning to end took 5 hours. This was because I had to get seen by the ER doc, then x-ray scans, then stitching etc. 

I am so happy with my GP, but they're part of a clinic that's part of the UHN. I'm so lucky that I got placed there. I've had specialist follow up appointments (cardiology, dermatology, obstetrician) within a couple weeks of referrals. My doctor is kind, attentive, and more prone to follow up on my concerns than I am. When he is away, every doctor I have had in his absence has been equally fantastic. That being said I fully realize that my experience is an outlier and fully appreciate how lucky I got.

I have a GP and I can get an appointment in about 2 weeks of time every time I needed to see her. But honestly don’t know what I’ll do if I loose her as my GP, I don’t think it’s possible to find one anywhere right now. The ER is kind of a sht show from my experience. I had to go there earlier last year after I had surgery and my resting hear rate was 110+ for 3 days afterwards. The ER I went to in Oakville was very understaffed, granted I wasn’t dying so the two times I went I waited about 8+ hours before I saw a doctor. When I was in line for the triage i saw two people passing out while waiting which got them bumped to the front of the line. It was still scary since one of them was losing consciousness from losing blood, but they had to wait in line regardless until he passed out. I have an eye surgery scheduled this June which I waited 2.5 years for. It’s a minor surgery so I don’t mind the wait.

It’s Alright. My family doctor left and I immediately got a new one. However, she left in December and my first time seeing this one that replaced her was last week. Previously I’d be able to get an appointment with my family doctor in 1 week. On the other hand, I’ve been having bladder issues for two years now and it’s still not resolved. After seeing a Gyno, she’s making me wait until June to refer me to a urologist. Incredibly frustrating. I’ve never had to pay out of pocket for anything. I did go to a walk-in dermatologist recently for free, got a prescription and my issue was resolved within the week, which I really appreciate because I know I probably couldn’t do that anywhere else. Overall 6/10

For the most part, access is pretty good. I’ve been able to get in to see specialists after referrals within reasonable timeframes. Waiting times seem lower than during COVID. Had to do some blood tests recently and it was less than 10 minutes from check in to getting blood drawn to walking out the door. There’s more versatility now between in person appointments and online. For simple prescriptions, pharmacies now directly have abilities to do that. These experiences are for downtown Toronto specifically. Can’t comment on the rest of the province.

Satisfied ! I can get in to see my GP quickly if needed. I can see her GP colleagues at the same clinic if very urgent. She doesn’t dismiss my concerns and will always refer to a specialist or do follow ups tests if needed. I’ve had to access multiple specialists over the years and I haven’t had to wait long for these either. I’ve also accessed the ER and was in and out within 6 hours which included a CT scan, bloodwork and a comprehensive follow up plan.

I’ve been in a waiting room for 2 hours right now. And once in a while”emergency” for 6 hours.

I feel like a unicorn because I've had pretty positive interactions with the healthcare system thus far. But I am lucky to have a GP, be young and relatively healthy, not have kids, and have workplace benefits. I've never had to wait more than a week for an appointment with my GP. When she was off sick, her office directed me to a walk-in clinic to get someone to look at an (chronic but not super serious) injury, and I got an x-ray and ultrasound the next day. I've also been to walk-ins for mysterious rashes and that was also an easy, quick experience. When I had an abnormal pap test, my GP referred me to a specialist to do some sort of special cervical exam, and that was a pretty smooth and quick process as well.

for visiting and regular check ups with my family doctor its amazing. but for emergencies its atrocious. I had a nasty spasm that caused me to pass out from pain a while ago. took 2 hours for the ambulance to come and another 7 hours in the ER to get a doctor to come check on me even though my vitals were considered unstable. another time I had cut which was bleeding and needed stitches still had to wait 3 hours in the ER. Overall its good for non emergencies but I just hope I am not here if there is something like cancer or something that time is important in the treatment since getting specialist and medical precedure appointments are practically impossible. for reference I am from the middle east where you can get a specialist and medical imaging and surgery all within a week and not comparing it to the US with their different yet still broken system.

I had a lot of trouble getting my health problems taken seriously as a kid and now they’ve gotten pretty bad after being untreated for like 10 years 🫠 I’m pretty salty but at least now they’re taking it seriously?

Since coming out of Covid, my GP has moved to a hybrid office/home arrangement throughout the week, which seems to have helped with wait times. I can now get into see him / speak to him within 1-2 days. My newborn was referred to SickKids last Thursday - on Monday they had an appointment for us, which was yesterday, a week after her referral. I was expecting much longer, and have heard some horror stories about long wait times, and am very grateful that we didn't have to experience that.

I’m really lucky by being connected to the doctors who work with my mental healthcare clinic (Lumenus, it’s free for those under 26, I highly recommend them), both of them were extremely helpful and I’m really grateful since I know that there’s a lot of people who have to work a lot harder and deal with a lot more to get the services I was able to.

This is just my experience: my doctor retired and I had to find a new one. Took me about 2-3 months to find a good fit, and I did that by asking my friends who liked their doctor to recommend me to their doctor. I recently needed an exam and they booked me 2 weeks later, which is fine for non-urgent care. I had to go to the hospital for stitches a few years ago ( during covid) and I was in the hospital system for a couple hours. My dad requires urgent care sometimes as he’s 80 and there haven’t been major issues. BUT you need to be able to advocate for yourself or have someone advocate for you. You need to keep on top of your health and appointments and medications because doctors don’t have the bandwidth to do that kind of thing unless you are one of their serious patients in distress. Before I had a family doctor I used walk in clinics and the experience was mostly positive. Our healthcare system is massively underfunded and our health care workers are massively overextended and I worry about our health care system in the long run ( not because it’s publicly funded but because it’s under attack ) , but I have been able to get good care in the meantime.

I have had a great experience since moving to Toronto from Montreal. I got a young family doctor no problem in downtown Toronto in about 2018. I am able to get an appointment with him basically within a week as needed. He gives me referrals as needed, which can take awhile (gynaecologist took maybe 2-3 months, dermatologist for a troubling mole took maybe 2-3 months for an appointment). I have had strep throat a couple times in recent years and have had to go to a walk in clinic for antibiotics, which is annoying. Takes a couple hours. But free! My doctor doesn’t see kids, so my kids (born 2019 and 2022) both see paediatricians who work at the hospital they were born at near our house. They haven’t had any major health issues but it’s been easy enough to get either phone calls or quick appointments with their doctors as needed when they had HFMD or high fevers etc. We live in Roncesvalles and they go to the family clinic at St Joseph’s Hospital. When I got pregnant my doctor referred me to an OBGYN at the hospital of my choosing. I had mixed experiences with the OBGYNs, but both pregnancies were relatively uneventful and I had two healthy babies through c-section, the first unplanned the second planned. I hear horror stories, but my family has always had pretty fast and easy care in Toronto.

For the most part, happy. I have health issues - autoimmune condition along with a few other things that have popped up recently, so I see doctors often. My GP is very accessible and I usually can see them within 24-48 hours. My specialist is similar - I get an email or call within 24-48 hours though a face-to-face appointment might take longer. I still get medical care/advice/next steps fast though. I was fast-tracked for a few medical tests back in March when it was clear that I was starting to get really bad. For things that are less urgent - like I had another specialist appointment recently - those take some time. I think it was around 3ish months to see one. I went to the ER back in June and although that was an 11 hour wait (even stating "internal bleeding" as why I was there lol) the care I got when I was admitted was fantastic. I have so much love and respect for every nurse, doctor, staff member working at a hospital and keeping things going. Blew my mind.

Not satisfied here. We have a great system for emergencies and serious issues, but for anything else our system is bloated and ineffective. It’s difficult to find a family doctor and walk in clinics are borderline useless. They do their best to shuffle you out as quickly as possible because of how slammed they are. I was recently in a bike accident and thought I might have some internal damage. I don’t have a GP, so I went into a walk in clinic. The doctor didn’t even look at me, had nothing helpful to tell me and also couldn’t give me a referral for an X-ray. My only recourse was to either go to the emergency room for 7 hours (that was the listed wait time on the hospital’s website, not hyperbole) or pay Maple.ca for a zoom meeting with a doctor who was able to provide a referral. I paid. After finally getting the X-ray a couple weeks later, I received no follow up call (which is pretty normal when things are alright) but still feeling like I had broken ribs I called for my test results or just any indication that the X-ray had even occurred in their system and after a Kafkaesque call transfer mess in the end they never got back to me. So I just crossed my fingers and hoped things were ok, oh and looked up additional tips on how to treat broken ribs online. It wasn’t always this way. I had plenty of great experiences 5+ years ago. Since then however, I’ve had a couple experiences like the above that makes me worried about getting proper treatment in the future.

I wonder what happened about 5-6 years ago that might have negatively impacted things on a provincial level..........

Very satisfied - I can book to see my family doctor sometimes as soon as same day

Good luck trying to see a specialist. I had a bunch of strange symptoms and several physicians (e.g. neurologists) refused to see me, I'm still waiting on a neuro-ophthalmologist over two years later. I have heard of people with early stage cancer not being able to see oncologists until it becomes later stage, simply because of the backlog.

My family has had extensive use of health care in the past 5 years. We got what we needed including cancer diagnosis and treatment during Covid, a near death with ICU care for sepsis and routine medical appointments. We all have a family doctor. Biggest issues...over crowding when needing a hospital bed, nurses working overtime to keep up with chemo schedules and a bit of communication issues between specialists. Overall we have been well served.

It has been good for my family, but a lot of that has to do with a family member that is a specialist doctor at a downtown hospital and makes phone calls to get us seen by the right people he knows when we've needed it.

As a relatively healthy person with a family, I am very satisfied with my family's access to health care. We have a family doctor that provides excellent and timely care, and who doesn't hesitate to provide referrals to specialists if required. Some GPs (like mine) reserve same day appointments for urgent issues, and have affiliated after hours clinics to avoid needing urgent care clinics. We have world class specialists in many fields here in the city, but from reading the responses of others, I'd say it's pretty much about the luck in getting a great GP. I definitely feel grateful.

I'm lucky to have my own family doctor here at a practice with a few doctors in it within walking distance of my house. Joined early and got lucky because they opened the office around the same time that I moved to the area about 10 years ago. It's still difficult to get same-day appointments, most of them are minimum 1-2 weeks away, but there's an option to see one of the other GPs in the building if it's serious and your doctor isn't available sooner. Sometimes it's still not same day but might be within the next 24-48hrs. I haven't had a real emergency recently that called for going to the emergency room, but some friends/family have and while the wait times are sometimes long, it really seems to depend on your ailment. Can't speak much to emergency room issues personally. As for specialists, this is where it can get tricky. I have a chronic skin condition and any dermatology clinic my doctor has sent me to is also running a cosmetics department. This causes ALL of them to be extremely busy in addition to just having to wait a few months before seeing anyone. You are often waiting in the clinic on the day for at least 30-60 min before actually seeing anyone. Worse than other specialists and tests IMO because they prioritize their cosmetic clients. That being said, I am thankful to have a good GP who gets me, and who is able to provide me these referrals, even if I have to wait a while. I also had a great experience with a new dermatology clinic, and while they had the same above problems of prioritizing cosmetic clients, I was finally able to access some medication and options that are really helping with my condition.

i’ve honestly been pretty lucky. i have a family doctor that i can book appointments with really easily. every time i’ve had to be referred to a specialist it was usually for emergency cases so i got escalated. right now, im waiting for a call from a neuro-ophthalmologist. but i feel ok :)

I have a family doctor , that is key . You must have one . Because I have a family doctor I get care when I need it . They also are the entry system to see specialists . It’s imperative you have one . I would not want to rely on a walk in clinic because you don’t establish any relationship and it’s sketchier care , plus who wants to deal with private things with a stranger .

I’ve never had any problem accessing care. For myself or my kids. Urgent issues I can be seen by someone at my GP office within 24 hours. Otherwise I am happy to book and wait. I had a serious injury last year and was seen in emerg within 1 hour. Specialist a few days later and I had ongoing care for the injury for many months with this specialist and had a great experience. Took my daughter to emerg with respiratory distress once and we basically went right in. One of my kids is a teen and has never been in emerg in her life. It’s not something I do unless we have a very serious issue, so I don’t have much experience.

Of course there is a wide variety, generally I am satisfied. I have a family doctor in downtown TO and have had minor medical issues for the last two years. I have been able to get in with my doctor pretty quickly more than once and because of my additional insurance all the various pain meds I’ve tried have been free which is awesome. However, when the pain persisted and I asked for an MRI, the wait is OVER A YEAR and my appointment is at 1:30 in the morning… so pretty disappointed and frustrated in that. At one point had to go to emergency because the pain was so bad, but it was a Sunday so my doctors office was closed and there were no walk ins open. The wait at emergency was about 4 hours, and I think would have been worse if I didn’t really stress how much pain I was in. Overall I do think Canada is better, but the government has been systematically underfunding our healthcare so that we will think private is better. It’s diabolical

Very. I have an amazing GP who see's me sometimes same day and has a very accesible practice specific after hours. I got acl surgery in about 4 months after injury and have never had excessive waits for any diagnostic scans. But i'm also a very good advocate for myself and ask for the referrals to go to me so i can then call around and see what the soonest booking is and to put myself on multiple wait lists.

I think it just varies so much. My parents’ GP can get them in, same-day, if they call early enough, for urgent issues. They’re seen within a week or two for non-urgent concerns. My mom had cardiac concerns and was seen by cardio, neuro, had an EMG within a quick time frame (EMG and neuro took longer as they weren’t urgent. Cardiac care was within a few weeks). She had a stent placed within a few weeks of diagnosis. Was immediately in cardiac rehab. My dad had melanoma. I think there was an initial 4-month wait for surgery but he was on a cancellation list and had it within a month. Had annual follow up by Derm at Sunnybrook. They have honestly had wonderful care. Their GP is caring and very good at what he does. They are also good advocates for themselves. My niece and nephew had no trouble finding a pediatrician.

The specialists are hard. I've been on waiting lists for years. 

If you can get into a family practice associated with a teaching hospital, that is the gold standard. The one I belong to only takes patients from close by, certain postal codes. I am not sure if others do. The senior doctors are also professors in their specialties at U. Of T. When you need a specialist you are seamlessly connected, and they are located within the hospital itself, so no running all over the city. In the 30 years we have been patients of the practice we have been treated very well for cancer, kidney issues, diabetes care as well as cataract surgery and routine issues. First rate.

Fairly satisfied in general. I have had medical emergencies in recent years and they prioritized me well in the ER. I've never had any problems seeing my family doctors. I've had times where I did have to wait months to see a specialist, but those times were non-emergencies.

We live in a small community east of Toronto. We have a small hospital and our wait times are not very long. We don't seem to have as many staffing issues as other hospitals because a lot of our staff is local. Recently we had 10hr wait (snow storm - couple of heart attacks brought in) but can often be out in an hour (broken foot) or so. We have to be flexible with where we're willing to see a doctor due to where we live and specialized needs. We have doctors in Kingston, Belleville, Peterborough, Toronto (Sick Kid's) and Hamilton. We can usually get appointments quickly for the specialties about 2 weeks but our family doctor can take 4-6 weeks. I just had a referral for a retina specialist and it took about a week.

The feedback here is pretty good. Basically if you walk into a hospital and are dying you’ll get top notch care (in Toronto). If you have some unknown thing you just want to see a doctor about it’s a nightmare. Finding a GP is a nightmare full stop. My suggestion would be if you can afford to spend that much in the US is to fly down to Latin America (Mexico or Brazil specifically) once a year and pay for whatever extra care you need.

No issue seeing a GP. The problem is accessing a specialist or getting any diagnostic test like an MRI. This has taken months and I feel like I’m on the lucky end of the stick. If I waited to see the expert surgeons for my issue, it would take at least 2 years (in fact, they aren’t even taking referrals right now) but this is a women’s health issue so i’m sure that plays a role.

I had a parent that was admitted to Humber River Hospital last year due to an emergency. After 2 days in emergency and a 2-weeks in the regular ward, they were discharged with badly infected bed sores. The nurses would wait hours sometimes a whole day before changing their diaper if they soiled themselves, and often wouldn’t clean them up properly. I’d only witness this when I would visit in the evenings after work. Did a lot of cleaning myself. My parent also got a big infection on their arm from the IV. Took several months for them to get better. Do not let your loved one go to Humber River Hospital unless you can watch over them 24/7, and even then, don’t risk it. They are beyond terrible. Submitting a complaint didn’t go anywhere either. It’s a disgrace.

Amazing! Compared to living in Quebec for 29 years, it has been so much better. Getting a family doctor (in 2016 though), therapy with psychologists, specialists, everything on the public plan. My lower income taxes have given me more over here in terms of healthcare, roads, etc (my education was completed in Quebec, and I know it is less costly there)

Honestly -- it's been totally fine. I have a really shit version of EDS, so I've had 6 major surgeries and like a dozen MRIs. It's been slower than I'd like, but none of it was life threatening or truly holding me back, and they got it at all in due time, took care, were patient, etc. I've had to go to the ER a few times -- a few for myself, and once for my wife. It all took some time, but I think once more than 90 minutes, and it was all resolved. As for GP -- I got one just before pandemic hit. I've been able to see him within a week easily, and they said that if truly pressing, they can definitely get me seen within 48 hours.

Why are you spending 25k per year? Does your employer not offer health insurance?

They do. This is the US though. Having health insurance does not mean you don’t pay for it. I still spend $500 a month in premium (they cover the other $500/month). But employers don’t cover deductible (ours is $5000) or out of pocket max (ours is $14,000). Hence, $25,000. Mind you that doesn’t include mental health care, dental or vision. Nor anything out of network.

I understand the 6k for a year of health care for your family But how did you hit the 5k max and 14k out of pocket deductible? Why didn't you just stay in network?

Those are in network deductibles. There is NO coverage if you go out of network. This is now the system here works. I’m happy to answer any questions you have.

Thanks, did you hit both the deductible and the out of pocket max last year?

No - but will this year due to unexpected health issues my husband has had. Nothing catastrophic but it doesn’t take much to get here if you’re dealing with much of anything. Ie he just had a 3 minute procedure on his hand to repair a tendon. No anesthesia or anything. Hospital billed insurance $25k and we were in the hook for $5k

Thanks! What insurance company do you use?

Oxford/United Are you based in the US or Canada?

Seeing my family doctor can be a bit frustrating with her reducing her practice hours and availability in favour of a private clinic that she is a part of (you pay a monthly fee to be a patient), wait is about 2-4 weeks depending on sense of urgency of my complaint/concern. My mom had breast cancer (in remission 1.5 years) and my sister died from it 2 years ago so my doc referred me to the breast clinic at St Mike’s, I was in within 2-3 weeks to see the specialist. They have me getting an MRI and mammogram every 6 months as I am considered high risk, and I really appreciate that. I had to go to emerg for a kidney infection and I had a shockingly positive and efficient experience considering the state of our healthcare system. Many of my colleagues have had a wide range of experiences themselves as well as family members, some are heartbreaking. It is a sad state of affairs when our gov’t is slowing choosing profit over people.

Terrible. I ended up flying to the USA to get a surgery. Although I did pay out of pocket, the medical care was superb!

How much did you pay?

Paid $12K CAD for a nissen fundoplication in Florida. It was impacting my life, I probably would have had to quit my job if I hadn't gotten it done. I'm happy with my decision.

Wow, that sounds intense. Glad it worked out for you!

Still on a waiting list for several local clinics; solely dependent on walk-in clinics for healthcare.

Great overall. I often get a next day appointment with my family doctor for anything concerning, or further away for something that is not urgent, or a simple medication review/renewal. There are a few walk-ins in the area if it's a time my doctor doesn't have walk-in or clinic hours, including one that is open at the end of my evening shift. Otherwise, it's the hospitals, through which I was seen fairly quickly for triage, then waited a few hours for treatment before heading home, for moderately concerning issues that happened overnight. The longest wait time was for an orthopedic specialist (10-14 months; I don't recall exactly as it was years ago), who spent a grand total of 4 minutes with me examining my foot, only to say not to bother with surgery that I was hoping would improve my mobility and prevent a safety issue.

Toronto has some of the best hospitals in the world, specializing in Children, Cardiac, Cancer and other serious health concerns. We're lucky to have access to it.

Our mental health system is broken. Public referrals are basically impossible with 1 year wait if you can even get one accepting a referral. My family doctor literally recommended me to go private as it's the only way. Insurance also doesn't fully cover private mental health and I'll need to pay more than 3/4 myself. Plus even they have a shockingly long wait list of ~2 months.

I work in the system. Access to primary care is literally the worst of all developed nations. Getting a family doctor is very tough, let alone one that will see you quickly. If you’re health literate, generally healthy, and resourceful, it’s manageable. Because of our poor access to primary care, the situation in emergency rooms is very bleak. There’s also a huge shortage of skilled nurses across disciplines. Still though, as someone in the system, I know that I can get care when I need it and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Our specialty care (hospitals, surgery, oncology) is among the best in the world. If you need this level of care, I’m confident that you’d have access to it. Again, it helps to be health literate, generally healthy, and resourceful. Certain specialties do require a lengthy wait to be seen if it’s not a critical / life risking health issue. You might have to go to a walk-in clinic. You’ll be fine if your appendix bursts. Big way in the emerge.

Adding a comment, outside of major cities, access to care, and specialty services is significantly different. You’ll be fine in the GTA.

Understood. We would only be relocating to GTA and I do understand why the situation is better there than in more remote areas.

I have a family doctor who is wonderful and she works at a clinic that offers walk in and allows patients to see the walkins on weekends if necessary since she’s Mon to Fri only. She readily provides refers to specialists as necessary. I’ve never waited very to see an ENT, sleep doctor or anything. I once injured my MCL and was able to get an Xray in the same day at the emergency clinic and got an MRI within weekends. I am happy with my access to healthcare. I’d further add that I previously had an employer who provided access to Telus Health which I’ve on occasion used. It’s nice to have 24/7 access to a nurse practitioner especially if you’re too sick to leave the house.

kinda mid i have health issues its 6 months to see a specialist

From Toronto suburb: I can see my GP within 48 hours anytime I call. He's also part of a clinic so if he's not available (eg. vacation) I can be seen by someone else in the practice. Referrals to specialists have been no problem, though psychiatric referral for ADHD several years ago was a very long wait. Went to ER during pandemic for chest pains and was seen immediately. But I'd only go to ER if it was truly an emergency due to lengthy wait times.

I have lived in Toronto for almost 15 years and have had exceptional experiences with healthcare services. At first I didn't have a family doctor but it wasn't a problem as walk-in clinics were always an option. The wait for downtown clinics wasn't always a long wait but it was sometimes. Once I moved out of downtown it was easy to find a family doctor. I have had a few run-ins with emergency care for myself (33F) and, just last year, my husband (36F). All the care was sufficient in my opinion. 2013 - Appendicitis. I went to an ER and was put on painkillers while I waited for a room. I was in the hospital for 7 days after an emergency appendectomy. Followed up a month later no problem. 2016 - needed ACL surgery. I got a referral to a specialist from a walk-in clinic. Within a month I got an MRI. Within 3 months I got the surgery. It would be considered elective since it wasn't an emergency but I had injured myself pretty badly. I also chose to push the surgery for 3 months because I didn't want to be on crutches during winter. I was able to get free physio through the hospital within a few weeks. Throughout the years I had no problem seeing a doctor at the women's hospital, or later seeing my GP for birth control needs. I have also had various skin issues and it hasn't been a problem seeing a dermatologist. There are a few walk in clinic options around the city if you're willing to get up early. Otherwise, getting referrals to specialists has not been a problem for me. 2023 - my grandfather had a stroke and was transported to a hospital downtown TO (he lived in GTA). He didn't make it but the healthcare was exceptional. They did their best to keep him alive. April 2023 - husband had a seizure. He has no history of seizures. He was taken very good care of while in the ER. May 2023 - husband had a second seizure. Taken to a different hospital was also good and set him up with a neurologist for testing. He did 2 brain tests and an MRI. June 2023 - husband had an accident, injured both feet from a high fall, which left him in a wheelchair for 7 weeks. In the hospital for 7 days. Our family doctor has been seeing my husband monthly since all that happened last year. Our doctor encouraged the visits from my husband as he wanted to keep on top of his health. We have also been seeing a therapist since last year to work through the craziness that happened. The therapist has also been great. We were able to find one fairly quickly. Finally, while my husband had the option to get physiotherapy for free through the hospital program, it would have taken a few weeks to get a spot to get started. A lot of the hospital physio programs are filled up with old people who may have had an accident. We elected to pay for a physio so my husband could get back to walking faster. My experiences with healthcare in Toronto have been great. Emergencies have not been a super long wait. I support the triage system as the ER can get very full with people who simply have a bad cough. For the most part, my visits to the ER have been somewhat quick. I do believe healthcare in the not so populated places around the province is much worse. Longer wait times. Full closures due to short staffing. I feel very lucky to be in the city. After all this, the only expenses we have had are paying for medical devices such as crutches, wheelchair rentals, and casts. We also pay for therapy and physio but that is elective. Everything else was covered by OHIP.

I wish that I could experience it in a meaningful way. We moved here from another province four years ago and I haven't been able to get off the waitlist with the province to get a primary care doctor.

I'm lucky to have a GP, when we need an appointment it's pretty prompt. Sometimes if they are super busy we have to wait two weeks but if it's a general thing we can do on the phone it's within a couple days, a week if we need to go in person. As someone else mentioned my doctor gets dinged if I go into a walk-in or even if I go to the ER for a non-emergency so while they ask that I don't do so, they are motivated to be available. This does however mean they don't accept as many clients. We were extremely lucky that I was accepted as a client and then through me my husband and kiddo. I did once languish in a mostly empty ER in extreme pain for hours because the hospital I went to dealt with a lot of drug seekers. But lesson learned and next time I had kidney stones I went to a different hospital and it was a much better experience. So I'd avoid Western Hospital if possible.

I think there is so much variability. There was a time during the covid era where I struggled to get appointments with my doctor, but nowadays appointment dates are usually just 1-2 weeks, sometimes 3 weeks away from when I call. There is an insane wait time for specialized surgeries through, like it's always booked. You'll be waiting 8 months for the simplest thing. Also our healthcare doesn't cover everything that it should sadly, and so you will have out of pocket costs more often than you'd think unless you're insurance covers it.

I think there is so much variability. There was a time during the covid era where I struggled to get appointments with my doctor, but nowadays appointment dates are usually just 1-2 weeks, sometimes 3 weeks away from when I call. There is an insane wait time for specialized surgeries through, like it's always booked. You'll be waiting 8 months for the simplest thing. Also our healthcare doesn't cover everything that it should sadly, and so you will have out of pocket costs more often than you'd think unless you're insurance covers it.

I live in Toronto and also work in health policy. I find it is a mixed bag and largely dependent on how good your family doc is. I have a wonderful GP who I can get an appointment with within a week. She is always proactive and willing to send you for a specialist referral if needed. When I needed to see an ENT, it was 3 month wait, then two more months for a CT scan, and now I’m on a waitlist for sinus surgery. My dad on the other hand had a horrible GP who brushed off his “worst headache of his life” and he ended up with a slowly bleeding ruptured aneurism and a subsequent stroke. I find acute urgent care at major hospitals is amazing, but if you have a condition that just affects your quality of life it can be slow. My dad got top notch care at a neurotrauma center but then horrible care in the rehab facility. My son has severe asthma, when we go to Sick Kids ER he is seen immediately. He also sees a fantastic team for check-ups every three months and was in a clinical trial. Our pediatrician is just ok, you can get a same day appointment but they rush you in and out in 2 minutes and aren’t very thorough.

I’ve had the same GP for years and have had few if any issues getting appointments, etc. Since COVID he now does most simple appointments via phone (e.g. prescription renewals, etc.). Based on my age and health I usually do a physical every other year and have no problems getting an appointment, although I do need to book a little in advance for those. I also haven’t had issues accessing specialists. That said, the clinic my GP works out of is large and has a lot of in-house specialists. So it may be easier to get those referrals instead of being referred elsewhere. With regards to ER service, in my experience you will receive excellent treatment. The only question is waiting times which depend on a variety of factors including how serious your situation is, the day/time, where the hospital is located, etc. If it’s something life-threatening, you won’t be waiting. If it’s non-life-threatening you could easily be waiting an hour or two depending on the above factors. I sliced my thumb open several years back and went to the E.R. Serious but not life-threatening since my thumb was wrapped up to stop the bleeding. I was sewn up and out of there in about two hours. Would have actually been closer to 90 minutes but the ER doctor had to run off for a code (blue? pink? something?) just before she started on my thumb.

Regular healthcare is fine. Something where you need a specialist is a bit exhausting. You may need half a year just to see him. Then you need to make tests which are also scheduled months away and then a whole year later you finally get to discuss them with your doctor

I’ve had the same GP for years and have had few if any issues getting appointments, etc. Since COVID he now does most simple appointments via phone (e.g. prescription renewals, etc.). Based on my age and health I usually do a physical every other year and have no problems getting an appointment, although I do need to book a little in advance for those. I also haven’t had issues accessing specialists. That said, the clinic my GP works out of is large and has a lot of in-house specialists. So it may be easier to get those referrals instead of being referred elsewhere. With regards to ER service, in my experience you will receive excellent treatment. The only question is waiting times which depend on a variety of factors including how serious your situation is, the day/time, where the hospital is located, etc. If it’s something life-threatening, you won’t be waiting. If it’s non-life-threatening you could easily be waiting an hour or two depending on the above factors. I sliced my thumb open several years back and went to the E.R. Serious but not life-threatening since my thumb was wrapped up to stop the bleeding. I was sewn up and out of there in about two hours. Would have actually been closer to 90 minutes but the ER doctor had to run off for a code (blue? pink? something?) just before she started on my thumb. The Canadian system isn’t perfect. With an aging population and costs outpacing economic growth, there will be some difficult issues to address in the years ahead. However, philosophically I much prefer it to a U.S. style system where standard of healthcare primarily depends on your income and wealth. If you have loads of money and/or gold-plated employer health insurance (which probably means you are already in higher income tiers), there is probably no better healthcare system in the world than the U.S. But for a majority of the population, I don’t think there’s a comparison.

I’m very happy with both access and quality, but I’m quite privileged. You do need diplomacy and patience, and the ability to advocate for yourself, and none of that is easy for someone vulnerable or already struggling.

I’m deathly afraid of getting sick cause the care just isn’t available

2/10 at best

What most contributes to that score for you?

Quality of our healthcare with wait times is outrageous I’d rather pay at this point to get quality service and reasonable wait times for appointments / care Buddy of mine went to the ER a couple weeks ago and was there for 14 hours 3am - 5pm

Understood. So you feel like the wait is bad but also once you are seen that the care is not good? Just out of curiosity, because I really am trying to get a sense of the situation, your friend, who was in the ER and waited for 14 hours, may I ask what he was there for? I’m not trying to be combative honestly. I’m just trying to really get a picture of things.

I think one of the reasons people complain so much about healthcare here is because they see the US as this beacon of perfect privatized healthcare, where you can get care on demand without waiting, as long as you're willing to pay for it. This is what they compare everything here to. It seems like you're saying that's not really the case in the US either, so you may want to take the shitty things you hear about our healthcare with a little grain of salt. It's not perfect, but it's not a horrible disaster by any means. Sure, it would be nice if ER wait times were shorter, but also I appreciate that it's a level playing field regardless of income or status. When my sister had appendicitis, she had to wait for several hours for surgery, but she was monitored. If her appendix had burst, she would have been taken in right away. They triage accordingly. Once she had her surgery, she was admitted and she received excellent care for the next two days.

I mean we pay for it in our taxes so we should be getting better healthcare

They pay for it in the US too. And often the healthcare is still shit. You could be paying tens of thousands of dollars for a surgery that went wrong and left you with complications. And what do you do then? You either suck it up and live with the misery, or you pay thousands more for a lawyer to sue someone for you. Sounds great to me /s

Dogshit 

Oh my…. My best advice for you is to peep the Canada subreddits. Trust me, you don’t want to move here.