SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Leslie Bader brought her one-year-old son to the Yellowknife Primary Health Care Centre walk-in clinic last week to see about a persistent cough, only to be an involuntary contestant in a race to the reception desk.

Leslie Bader and her one-year-old son, Alexander, stand outside the Yellowknife Primary Care Centre Monday, March 14. - Katherine Hudson/NNSL photo

Bader said when she arrived at the clinic at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, a half-hour before the walk-in clinic began taking patients, she assumed she would register at the desk or grab a number and be called when it was her turn.

Bader said an impromptu line started to form as the clock inched toward 4 p.m., winding around the reception area. Once the walk-in clinic began, the line became a free-for-all toward the clinic's desk.

"Staff were aware someone was forming the line and I thought someone was going to come out and say 'OK, here are your numbers for the clinic.' But it was just this random call-out from the desk which was near the back of our line," said Bader.

Although Bader was about the third person to arrive for the walk-in clinic, she was the eleventh person to reach the desk and register her name.

"People just rushed it and grabbed numbers. I had my stroller and didn't want to ram anybody with my stroller," she said.

She said the people who arrived closer to 4 p.m. and who were closer to the desk were seen by the practitioner sooner.

Bader said she and her son, Alexander, waited for about three hours to be seen, which she said isn't too bad, however her concerns centre around how the walk-in clinic doesn't recognize who is present until 4 p.m.

"You take a number at a deli. This seems to work around the world – you arrive, you take a number," she said.

She said the Centre for Northern Families, which also has a walk-in clinic, gets people to register themselves at the desk when they arrive.

"They take your name and then you're called. It's a pretty mellow process," said Bader.

She said she realizes the health care centre is open all day with the walk-in service only opening at 4 p.m. but there should be a way to ensure those who come first get seen first.

She said she saw people with children, older people, and observed that the first people to get in are the ones who are the most mobile, and who can make it to the desk the fastest.

"It really is not a fair way to offer health care. It is great to have a walk-in clinic and maybe I should just count my blessings I was seen in the same day but I don't want to go through that again and I don't want other people to go through that either."

Les Harrison, chief executive officer of the Yellowknife Heath and Social Services Authority, said at 4 p.m., individuals requesting walk-in services are given assigned 15-minute appointments with a limited number of appointments so the clinic isn't over-booked.

"If you were there at 4 p.m., you're number one and you get to see someone right away. What's happening, depending on the day, if it's a busy day, especially after a long weekend, then there's a lot of people in line to get a number for a walk-in appointment," said Harrison.

He said the authority has recently collected information from surveys to see how it can improve services such as the walk-in clinic.

"We did an airport-type model in which we would have somebody at the clinics at various times polling people," said Harrison.

He said the results should be available in April.

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