Walk-in clinics across the Tri-Cities have some of the shortest wait times in all of Canada, but also some of the longest.
On average, patients waited no more than 13 minutes at Coquitlam clinics in 2021 — nearly 50 per cent of the 25-minute national median.
The stats were published in a new report from Medimap today (April 21), a time index that collects data from more than 1,200 walk-in clinics in six Canadian provinces that use the software to publish its current wait times.
Coquitlam's time is the shortest in B.C., according to Medimap, and one of four communities where patients waited under 20 minutes to see a physician last year.
Compared to others across the nation, the city recorded the seventh shortest average time. The top six are all in Ontario:
Port Moody is also under the 20-minute mark with an average patient wait time of 19 minutes
While residents may not have to wait as long in those two corners of the Tri-Cities, others were not so lucky across the Coquitlam River.
Medimap says Port Coquitlam posted one of Canada's longest wait times for walk-in clinic patients at 49 minutes each.
That's the eighth longest in the country and the seventh in the province.
It's less than B.C.'s overall average of 58 minutes — the longest compared to the five other provinces that participate in Medimap's program: Alberta (18), Saskatchewan (31), Manitoba (20), Ontario (15) and Nova Scotia (44).
That's a bump of 15 minutes between 2019 and 2021.
In fact, B.C. walk-in clinics, including those in PoCo, make up seven of the top eight longest waiting times from last year.
Victoria has the longest at 161, followed by Kelowna at 91 and White Rock at 83.
Regionally, other wait-time averages included 24 minutes in New Westminster, 27 minutes in Surrey, 45 minutes in Burnaby and 61 minutes in Maple Ridge.
For more information on Medimap and to find wait times, you can visit its website, which is updated roughly every 30 minutes by walk-in clinic staff during scheduled operating hours.
