Last updated on December 17, 2023
In this article, I am going to show you to find a family doctor, this method can be applied everywhere in Canada.
Table of Contents
Overview
For those of you who do not know what a family doctor is? Family doctors are doctors who have their own clinics or work in local clinics. Here they will examine, treat and prescribe medicine for patients.
Family doctors usually only examine minor illnesses such as fever, cough, headache, muscle aches, or mild allergies. For serious diseases or pregnant women, the family doctors are only responsible for preliminary diagnosis, identifying injuries, pain, or pregnant women. Then the family doctors will write a referral and send your records to the specialists at the hospitals.
To better understand how the health system in Canada works, read more in the article Canadian healthcare – How the system works
Then I understood what a GP is, and how the Canadian health system works. Now I’m looking for a family doctor. Hey guys, I’m living in the province of British Columbia, so my guide is based in this BC province, you guys in other provinces can refer to it.
Find a family doctor from a government website
- In the province of BC, go to the website: https://bccfp.bc.ca/for-the-public/find-a-family-doctor
- Click on the first link Visit the Pathways Medical Care Directory
- In the interface after clicking on the link above, you go to Find Care, click on the box, and enter the name of the city you are in. For example, I’m in Langley. Type “Langley” into the box, then select the content in the list that appears.
After clicking on the city, the following interface will appear
- The human logo with the stethoscope 🩺 is a doctor who is still accepting new patients.
- The house-shaped logo with a plus sign ➕ is that the clinic is still accepting patients, the doctor will let the clinic choose for you when you come to register.
- Click on a doctor’s name and you will see that doctor’s information such as name, phone number, job location, and methods to make an appointment.
Similarly, when you click on the name of a certain clinic, the clinic’s information will also appear for you to see. At this point, all you have to do is make a phone call to the doctor or clinic to ask to confirm if you are still accepting patients and make an appointment to register.
However, doctors and clinics, there are good places to work, good quality, and there are places with very bad quality, so how do I check if that clinic is good or not? I will continue reading the next part.
How to check a good clinic
To check if the clinic or doctor is working well, and the service is of good quality, you often look at the review on Google Map about that clinic. GG maps review is developed by Google, so they are neutral, not on the side of doctors, clinics, or even patients, so the reviews on it are mostly reliable.
To check a certain clinic on Gmap, you get the address of that clinic on the list above and paste it into the search box on Gmap. For example, the clinic I searched for in the above section: Willowbrook Medical Clinic – 158A – 19653 Willowbrook Drive, Langley, BC.
Then you click on the review section, in the picture above is the number 38 reviews
According to the above information, this clinic overview has 3.4 stars out of 38 reviewers. This is a pretty low percentage that shows that this place is doing pretty badly. Any service that gets 4.0-4.5 is good, 4.5-4.7 is extremely good. 4.8 left. 4.9 or 5.0, I’ve never seen it, and it’s very rare.
However, sometimes some places have low reviews, but after changing owners or improving personnel, the quality is good again, but the reviews are still there. You should go to the review content of people who have just written for about 6 months and see how they evaluate it, it will be more accurate.
And of course, reading the review we should also filter out the reviews written properly, reviews like anger, curses, grimaces because of a dirty towel or washroom, I ignore.
For example, the clinic in the picture above is the place I found and registered for my family. They got a 4.0 review, which is a pretty good average, and I personally feel that the service is quite ok, the doctor is very happy and friendly.
Find the family doctor on the GG map
Sometimes you are in small cities, or because the government system has not updated all the information about doctors and clinics, you will not find many desired doctors.
Another faster but luckier way is to search directly on Gmap by typing the keyword phrase “walk-in clinic” into the search box of Gmap.
As you can see, a list of clinics will appear and if you see anyplace from 4.0 or higher, click to see the information, find the phone number and then call to ask if they still accept patients for the GP? If available, set a date and time to register, if not, change to another place.
In the list above, there are a number of places with only 2.7 stars. You should pay attention and dodge.
How to find a Vietnamese (or other) family doctor?
I actually give up on this one. The only way is for you to ask your friends and relatives here or in community groups and then ask them to introduce them to you. Personally, I don’t care too much about Vietnamese or Western doctors, whoever is friendly and happy, I will work together.
Summary
Above are the ways I apply to find a family doctor wherever I go to live in Canada after more than 3 years of living in this maple leaf country. Hope this article will help you to find a suitable BSG.
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Cheers!
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