University of Waterloo Health Services

The staff are not nice an helpful! They actually insist on being mean and rude. However, I had a good experience with nurses and doctors.

I have never had anything but positive experiences with the University of Waterloo Health Services. Do not let all the negative reviews deter you from getting the help you need.

Absolute garbage. The sole purpose of this place is to reject your requests for expensive services so the university insurance rates may not go up. Wasted me more than a months, to get in person appointment and give me OTC, yes, the phone visit prescribed me something not useful but the in-person one just give me a suggestion of OTC drugs. Rejected my request for referral, good job on wasting my precious time.

I was kind of nervous when calling on the phone to book an appointment after reading the reviews but for me it was fine. The receptionist on the phone was kind and helpful booking the earliest appointment so that I can have my prescription drugs as soon as possible.

Absolute mess ! Good luck getting anything done with the family doctors here. Just cares about logistics and that you dont go to a walk in clinic. Referrals is slow and all over the place, they dont know whag they are doing. Not to speak about their rude receptionists. Basically its a shame that this clinic is affiliated with the university of waterloo. I dealt with them for years, and they have been getting worse and nothing pushes them to be better. In a reasonable medical system, they wouldn't exist with this level of care. But its because its hard to move to other locations !

Had a doctors appointment and have received no follow-up. Not necessarily shocking, however their phone line has been busy for a week straight after attempting to call at various points each day. I end up waiting and the phone-call will hang up and disconnect telling me to "try again later".

I went to the University of Waterloo Health Services seeking transmasculine HRT (testosterone). When I first contacted them, I was able to get an appointment a few months after first calling, already a long wait but I wasn't expecting it to be instant so it was fine. At that appointment it was essentially just an intro where I said what I wanted and gave details of my health including info on a preexisting condition that put me at higher risk for heart issues. They said that they had a doctor with experience in the topic who could prescribe HRT, and that I needed to get bloodwork done. I was able to get blood taken at their physical office then got another appointment booked where they said the bloodwork looked fine/normal. I was then given another appointment with the specialized care portion of uWaterloo's health services (don't know the exact set up but it was a different office), with a psychiatrist to get a GD diagnosis. After that appointment (which required a multiple month wait), I then had to manually book another appointment with the original office, they didn't contact me afterwards at all. Only at that appointment was I told that they wanted me to see a cardiologist before they'd prescribe anything. Despite my heart condition having been known by them at the first appointment, they waited until this one to say I needed to see a cardiologist first. So I had to be on yet another waitlist (I can't blame that wait on UW Health Services since it was external, but the fact I couldn't have been on it about 5 months earlier, after the first appointment, was very frustrating). After I finally went to the cardiologist I had to book another appointment with UW Health Services which again took a while, and was then told that they couldn't prescribe HRT and that I had to go to a gender clinic/doctor specialized in it. Despite the fact that UW Health Services' website specifically says that they have doctors who focus on that. And despite the fact that HRT can be prescribed by any doctor, not just specialists. And despite the fact I had already been told by UW Health Services doctors that they could prescribe HRT themselves at multiple appointments. After almost a year, I'm essentially back where I started just waiting on an initial appointment with a new clinic. Appointments at clinics focused on trans care generally have wait lists of 5-7 months which I would think the doctors at UW Health Services would have known, so it's very disappointing that they didn't let me know that I would need to go to a different clinic earlier on, so I could have gotten on the wait list far earlier. Really feels like UW Health Services was just dragging me along and making the process as long as possible. Trans healthcare is known for not being good even from organizations who claim to support us, and this really feels like an example of that. Here's hoping the GD diagnosis and cardiology appointment I already have at least make it quicker at the new clinic. (I will note all of this was happening during COVID, all the appointments I had were virtual apart from having blood taken which was walk-in anyways)

They offer way too little, way too late, for a walk-in clinic. I called in for an urgent medical need that required physical examination. They told me: A. they had no appointments this week, B. I couldn’t come in next week because I had a mental health appointment with them at the same day they had availability (and apparently you can’t go twice in one day, no matter how unrelated the reasons for your visit are!!!!), and C. I’d have to wait until the following week to first get a phone visit, and then potentially get another appointment for an in person visit. No thank you, I am not planning to stay in pain for three weeks. :) I wish someone from UWaterloo was investigating why their clinic is consistently getting 1 and 2 stars by the majority of visitors.