Healthcare in Ontario

Note: This page forked from a previous documentation of walk-in=*. You may see similarities still on the page.

There is a distinction Ontario's health care system makes:

• a "walk-in clinic" is a doctor's office that serves anyone that walks in the door
• regular doctor's offices require that a patient register/enroll with them, and in some areas often do not register new patients due to lack of doctor time

Of course any amenity=doctors will help you if you stumble in the door bleeding, but for less acute illnesses it might be of interest whether you can expect to walk in the door and be seen by a doctor: unexpected headaches, non-severe pains, sick notes, etc.

In the healthcare system in Ontario, a patient can only be registered with at most one primary-care doctor at a time, and the doctor is then the default primary care provider until deregistration or registration with another doctor. (Doctors are paid by the system for serving/quasi-"owning" patients.)

Enrolling: you are connected with this doctor and they are your default provider from now on.