Westcoast Family Medical Clinic

If the new doctor at Westcoast Family Medical is an indication of the up and coming medical practitioners then I hope I never need a doctor again. She treated me like I was just a non-entity, reading off a script about what I could expect; e.g no annual medical because they don’t have statistical data to support their relevance, 10 minutes max per appointment, dramatic changes to medications that I have been on for years. She was cold, abrasive and certainly not friendly. And, when I called to tell the clinic I did not want to be a patient I thought the professional thing to do would be to provide some feedback. Instead I was brushed off and told how there were hundreds of patients waiting for doctors and she hung up on me. I love living in Sooke but I would rather die than step foot in that facility again!!

We have lived in Sooke for around 5 years now and been to this clinic a number of times as Walk In Patients. Our Doctor retired last year and we have been on the hunt for a doctors office to call home. We have always been happy with the treatment we have received from your clinic, however the challenge we have is not being able to book an appointment other than to call that same day and "See" if there is space. Being that your practice is our Primary Care location, would that not make us patients of your doctors and therefore afford us the ability to Book an appointment weeks in advance? We don't intend on leaving Sooke anytime soon, and I would love nothing more than to have regular health checkups for me and my family. How can this be arranged?

I have always been treated well by the staff- everyone is friendly and I haven't had any issues in the several years I have been a patient.. It is well known there is a doctor shortage, so leaving a 1 star rating for this reason is kind of silly; It is understandable that they aren't able assess/treat every person that needs care each day in our very rapidly growing community. I am very grateful for the physicians who have chosen to practice in Sooke.

I don't visit the Medical Clinic that often, but when I do it's for health reasons and usually last resort! I do understand that maybe my case isn't urgent or during these times it may be stressful and what not. Although when calling in to the office I have felt the receptionist is rude on more then 1 occasion. As a client/patient I don't expect the red carpet but at least common metal respect.

The reception takes lunch a half hour early and comes back a half hour late. They also start answering the phone a half hour after opening. They seem to have destain for the people on the other end of the line as you can pretty much hear the eye rolling. This was before the pandemic I might add, it's become worse since.Me personally I was in a car accident that left me with cognitive problems and metal hardware throughout my my body. My doctor is really short with me and seems to rush me out the office. I once asked to be put on medication to help me with concentration. He told me that if I came in early for a refill, or found out to be selling or giving it to other people he would no longer be my doctor.  I was also told to buy neproxin from thier pharmacy wich is just Aleave at like five times the price.  This place is run like a business and if you want the best care for yourself and your family members go somewhere else.

This clinic can be good if you can actually get through but is fraught with technical issues, and is understaffed for the amount of people in Sooke that still don't have access to a family doctor. Not exactly the clinics fault, there's just not medical staff to go around these days. This situation makes patients extremely frustrated in an all ready really frustrating situation where many of us can't get access to a consistent doctor so we can get our medical issues looked at. It makes staff short tempered, doctors that will treat you like you are wasting their time because your issue isn't yet life or death. Not pointing fingers at any one individual here, but something needs to change with this clinic. Today, I tried to get an appointment on behalf of my mother, whom takes medication for Alzheimer's. She is out of refills, however now two days of trying to get an appointment, with the website booking and phone system failing us, we need to now scramble to find another walkin clinic in the city that can take us short notice. Not cool West Coast Family Clinic, get your system figured out so nobody gets left behind like your clinic is currently doing. A new system that has been put in place for booking appointments online for the clinic and may be a new phone system too but is step back from what the clinic was using before. I was given an email to enroll with their new system, but within a very short amount of time any links to were invalid and/or expired. You can sign in as a guest, but you can't create an account for their system if you missed that short window of opportunity. The clinic generally takes the approach of you snooze you lose. Your online booking software basically fails to load in the mornings so you can't book. Isn't a browser issue as it happens in Chrome Edge and Firefox. It is likely throughput overload, stalling out like your trying to get tickets to a concert the morning bookings open. Your phone system is worse. If you are lucky, the system can manage to keep you on hold long enough without constantly disconnecting you that you can leave a message. 50/50 if you get a call back. I think this clinic could be good if our provincial government would actually address the staffing and funding shortages. The bandaid solutions that are being applied to this clinic just isn't enough. The clinic had an open enrolment to take on new patients last year, but didn't communicate it to the community, you needed to stumble across it on their website and if you didn't in the short amount of time the enrolment was open you're SOL. This clinic is a prime example of the sad state BC's health system is in.

My family Dr is a nurse practitioner Janelle. She listens to patient and she does whatever she has to do as a family dr! Thank you for taking care of our health,Janelle! Most receptionists are nice and I like their team but there is one staff over the phone is super rude after waiting for long time to have a call. It’s very fortune to have west coast medical in Sooke! Thank you!

The online appointment booking system is turned off and doesn't work any longer for walk in appointments. Impossible to get a hold of anyone at the clinic by phone and the machine says the clinic is full the minute after they open. How is that possible? Their system is made to make it as hard as possible to use the walk in clinic service for people who don't have a family doctor. I've used their clinic in the past years and it was not an issue like this. If you're going to offer the "walk in" service, it should be usable to the public!