It’s Sick

Your entire family washes their hands incessantly. They’re ingesting acidophilus continually and eating organic judiciously. But no matter how good your plan of attack is against the flu, winter colds, and other unwelcome illnesses, it’s pretty much inevitable that someone in the house will get sick. If it doesn’t hit you first, it will do so after you’ve nursed everyone else back to perfect health (good times). 

If there’s a bright side to getting sick, MedVisit is it. Torontonians are eligible for this 20-year running, OHIP-covered (read: no out-of-pocket cost to you) service that actually sends doctors to your home seven days a week for non-emergency medical needs. Instead of dragging the kids to the germ-filled walk-in clinic, debating for hours about an ER visit for something probably not emerg-worthy (like those pesky ear infections) or spending a sleepless night waiting to get into the pediatrician, MedVisit offers in-home, old-fashioned, doctor-to-your-door service within the boundaries of the GTA and beyond.

There are caveats to the program, yes. In order to get a same-day appointment with a doctor who will come to your house, you will need to get through to their call centre. Like calling a radio station for Justin Bieber tickets, there will often be a busy signal (especially when the phones first open at 8 am) and persistence may mean the difference between getting an appointment or not. 

Once you finally get through to a live voice, you will provide some personal information and reason for your call, then they’ll let you know of any available appointments in your specific area of the city. MedVisit breaks the city up into territories with a certain number of allotted appointments for each area. If there is an available spot, the receptionists will give you a time frame for the doctor’s arrival (between one and four hours), and they will call again to let you know when the doctor will be arriving. You will need to provide your Ontario Health Card, so make sure to have it on hand. 

Use every tool you can to stay healthy this year. But when the time comes and a doctor’s services are required, a house call is what we call good medicine.

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