Online health-care services are helping people avoid long wait times in hospitals while providing an accessible way to health care. But these services have limitations.
Max Baco
Kicker
In 2024, Mitchell Dearing suffered agonizing kidney stones and had to be taken to Health Sciences Centre via ambulance. After waiting 16 hours, he left, untreated.
It was not until a few months later that the St. John’s resident was prescribed medications and had tests done at St. Claire’s Mercy hospital – but only after a wait of seven hours.
In between the two trips to the hospital, Dearing relied on pain medications prescribed to him through online health-care services – an avenue that many turn to in desperation.
Dearing is among the 163,000 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, 30 per cent of the population, who don’t have a family doctor. Often, they must turn to online services until they can obtain in-person medical treatment.
Dearing’s own doctor moved away in 2019. In response, he did his own research and found out about Felix, an online healthcare service.
“We should do our due diligence as adults and explore more options,” Dearing said. “We don’t live in the 18th century anymore.”
Clare Hiscock, a student at Memorial University, faced a similar challenge.
Hiscock had been trying to get an appointment with her family doctor for a month-long cough she had last fall. She shared how she had to resort to over-the-counter medications for something that she feared could be more serious.
“There should be better ways to get appointments,” she said.
When Hiscock called a clinic to obtain a referral to a dermatologist recently, she received a voicemail from the receptionist advising that patients try Maple or other online services because the doctor planned to discontinue her practice in May.
Hiscock then said that the voice message listed suggestions of alternative ways for clients of the clinic to get health care.
Medical Perspective
One online service is Virtual Care NL, whose clinical providers are trained to be able to judge whether a virtual or physical assessment is appropriate for a client’s needs.
“(Virtual care) reduces travel, allows time to stay home, (so that people) don’t have to take time off work and (can) stay within their community,” said Ashley Dinn, senior manager of Virtual Care NL.
Dinn says the accessibility of virtual services in emergency departments could potentially impact wait times.
“In NL Health Services, we’ve been increasing access points within primary health care so that there is that balance of that collaborative approach of in-person and virtual [health care],” said Dinn.
The way virtual care works is similar to a face-to-face appointment. This allows clients to have an established relationship with clinicians. Building such a relationship is especially recommended for those who use online services as a primary source of health care.
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