A new health clinic in Victoria got a glimpse this week of just how desperate city residents are to find a family doctor or nurse practitioner.
Health Care on Yates, a primary care clinic led by nurse practitioners, set aside Tuesday to accept applications from new patients, but its website crashed almost immediately due to heavy traffic.
That, in turn, led to a spike in telephone calls and in-person visits, and by mid-day the clinic announced on Facebook that it had already reached its capacity for December.
Sikata Banerjee was among dozens of people left frustrated and disappointed by the experience.
The University of Victoria professor has been trying for months to find a primary caregiver for her husband, who is a senior with a compromised immune system.
“So when we went on the website and we saw that they were going to have this intake, we were really excited,” she said. “We were there at the dot of eight and we clicked on the intake application.”
Instead of being admitted, however, they kept receiving a message that the server was busy.
“Then we tried calling,” Banerjee said. “We were calling almost every minute from 8:50 onward and the phones weren’t being answered.”
The clinic posted an apology on Facebook on Wednesday and stated that its website would be updated shortly with a new intake process.
“We understand many people set alarms, sat by the computer, had our number on speed dial, and you still were unable to complete an application,” the statement said. “We are very sorry for the distress this must have caused; we were disappointed too.”
The next intake day will be Jan. 5 and more will be held throughout the year, the clinic said.
B.C.’s Ministry of Health issued an apology as well, saying the clinic’s website was unprepared for the heavy demand, but has been upgraded to a higher level of service with the host company.
“The clinic also took close to a hundred intakes from people who lined up at the clinic,” the ministry said. “We want to thank everyone who did this respecting social-distancing and mask-wearing at this time.”
The clinic opened in September as part of the province’s primary care strategy to link patients with doctors or nurse practitioners. It aims to deliver team-based care through partnerships between nurse practitioners, nurses, a social worker, mental health care worker and medical office assistants.
In September, the ministry said the clinic would receive $2 million in annual operating money from the province and work to link about 6,800 people to a nurse practitioner over the next three years.
Banerjee said she doesn’t blame the clinic for what happened Tuesday, noting that it serves multiple neighborhoods including Victoria, Vic West, James Bay, Oak Bay, Oaklands and Fairfield.
“We’re in a structural situation where all of these things converge and it makes it very frustrating,” she said. “It would be really nice if they opened some other clinics like this. I mean, this poor clinic has a huge catchment area. This is why their website crashed.”
lkines@timescolonist.com
