Toronto West Medical

The receptionists are rude, cold, impatient, both on the phone and in person. As if everyone owns them money, or they don’t like their jobs. Specially two front desks who started when the clinic was open.
The key to health care is «CARE», these receptionists definitely needs some trainings from the management team. If they can’t learn how to treat patient with care, they should NOT work in healthcare environment.

When phoning to schedule my 1^st appointment for a meet ‘n’ greet to interview a potential new G.P., the phone rang and rang & went to voicemail. The VM message stated they were now closed. I checked my watch, 4:53pm and tried again. And again. And again. On the 4^th attempt, the receptionist answered, «What?!?». Shocked, I asked if this was in fact Toronto West Medical. Yes, she confirmed, openly annoyed. Told her I wanted to schedule an appt w/​Dr. Brown and she went through the steps of booking with disdain and resentment seeping through her words. When I asked if everything was okay, that it seemed like it wasn’t a good time, she said, no, it was not, and that she was having a bad day. Ha! I thought I was calling a doctor’s office. You know, a professional operation. I just can’t launch into how absurd her behaviour was.
When I met with Dr. Brown, he stopped me not once, not twice, but three times to handle a «technical situation». The 1^st time, someone sent him a message on the computer – he interrupted me to reply. The 2^nd time, he stopped talking to reply to another message. And then someone knocked on the exam room door & came in to ask him a question. And he let them, and answered it!
He explained the clinic’s rules, gave me a long list of fees the clinic charges for things OHIP doesn’t cover, the fees they charge for cancelling, and that I’m obligated to go one of the doctors in their group if I should need urgent care.
He was surprised and mildly irritated when I had questions of my own. As this was a «meet ‘n’ greet» I’m not sure why. I was asked to fill out and sign a form which was an agreement to be his patient. I asked him some questions about what I was agreeing to and what the fine print meant, and the answers all began with some derivation of «the ministry likes us to _​_​_​_​_​_​so that we can get paid.» or, «…because it makes it easier for us to get paid.». All the while, the voice in my head screaming, «What does that have to do with my health care?!?».
I explained I was meeting a couple of other doctors and I wanted to think about it. I specifically mentioned this b/​c the fine print on the agreement said I was unable to look for a new family doctor for another 6 weeks if I select him as my new family doctor.
I left certain this was not the right fit. Two days later, when scheduling another meet ‘n’ greet, the receptionist was unable to schedule me b/​c I was already listed as a patient of Dr. Brown’s.
I find it a bit more than coincidental that Toronto West Medical must enter me as a new patient to get paid their full fees, and that I confirmed that I was still meeting other docs, and I didn’t sign their stupid agreement!
Consider yourself warned!

Went over & above for me. Had pre-​booked appt. for another reason, but was having waves of nausea and dizziness. Nurse & manager saw me keeled over outside & came to help.