Experts, advocates disagree on whether virtual walk-in clinics add pressure on - or free up - health system

Advocates for virtual care believe virtual walk-in clinics provide access to care and prevent people from visiting ERs and pediatric hospitals with less urgent matters. In Ont., patients and doctors are lamenting a reduction in virtual care options as doctors leave the platforms after the province and the OMA agreed to reduce fees paid to doctors for virtual visits. Fees for one-off visits were previously $37 for minor assessments and up to $60 for longer sessions. The changes cut those to $15 for phone calls and $20 for video sessions. But a study that compared patients who visited their own family doctors virtually with people who visited a virtual-only clinic shows virtual-only walk-in clinics may be resulting in more churn and more cost to the healthcare system. It finds virtual walk-in patients are twice as likely to visit an ED within 30 days due to a lack of continuity of care. For its part, the OMA notes that over a million patients don't have a family doctor and advocates for measures like faster licensing of internationally-educated physicians to address the doctor shortage.