Saskatchewan patients had to wait an average of 51 minutes to see a doctor in a walk-in clinic in 2022, which is 20 minutes longer than in 2021, according to the latest data from Medimap, a Canadian tech company.
In addition to increasing year-over-year, the wait times at Saskatchewan clinics also now exceed the national average, which sits at 37 minutes, by approximately 14 minutes.
“The wait times are sometimes 50 minutes … but it’s usually a much longer wait,” said Lakeside Medical Clinic family physician Dr. Adam Ogieglo. “We were seeing wait times of six or seven hours fairly regularly. Three hours was a short wait time.”
He said his clinic doesn’t keep records of their wait times, but they help approximately 170 patients a day.
So far in 2023, wait times have been looking up. They were much worse in November during the crest of the influenza season.
“I question the accuracy of a 52-minute average, but it depends on the clinic of course and the time of year. Certainly, now with less availability of family physicians and people having trouble finding a family doctor, doctors are leaving or retiring, we are seeing a lot more people that don’t have access to the system otherwise,” Ogieglo said.
Teddy Wickland, vice president of operations at Medimap, said the company surveyed 20 locations in Saskatoon and fewer than 100 clinics across the province.
He explained that while he was optimistic things had improved, he wasn’t surprised to see the wait times rise.
“A lot of doctors decided to retire early coming out of COVID-19, they were just burnt out,” said Wickland. “Then you think about doctors going through medical school and which specialties they choose; at a decreasing rate they are choosing family practice.”
With an increase in patient demand, Saskatchewan is sitting at the third highest wait times in the country behind British Columbia and Nova Scotia.
Both Ogieglo and Wickland agree that a change needs to happen within the system to bring in and retain doctors within family practices.
“Certainly now, with less availability with family physicians and people are having trouble finding a family doctor … we’re seeing a lot more people who don’t have access to the system otherwise,” Ogieglo said.