Office Policies

Communications to and from our office should be sent via the "Ocean" secure messaging platform.  A link to send a message to our office can be found on our main page. 

In order to ensure there are no problems with receipt, please ensure that your email address on file is up to date, and check that noreply@westsidefamilyhealth.ca and securemessage@westsidefamilyhealth.ca are not going to spam.

We also continue to offer phone communication as usual.

Our regular hours of appointments are from 9 am to 4 pm on weekdays. Each doctor has specific hours and days that they work. The telephones are on from 9 am until 6:30 pm every night. We will offer appointments depending on how medically urgent the issue is. 

If you need to be seen for an urgent issue, you will be booked either with your doctor or the on-call doctor for that day. This appointment may occur any time between 9 am and 8 pm on weekdays and 1 pm to 4 pm on weekends. We cannot book you at a specific requested time for these urgent issues. 

If you are a rostered patient of Westside and need to speak with a doctor outside of our telephone hours, please contact THAS at 1-866-553-7205. Rostered patients are expected to use our after-hours services instead of walk-in clinics.

If you are not a rostered patient of Westside and would like to speak to a nurse outside of office hours, please call Health Connect Ontario at 1-866-797-0000 or 811.

If you do not show up for an appointment, this means another patient is NOT able to see their care provider. You will be charged a $35.00 fee if you miss more than one appointment (in a one year period). If you miss multiple appointments, you may be restricted to same-day appointment booking only, or be asked to find a different family medicine clinic. A late appointment is considered the same as a missed appointment. If you arrive late, you may be asked to reschedule the appointment to a different time or date.

The Ocean system can also be used to book appointments online with your doctor. Please note – some appointments for more urgent issues are not available online. Please phone if you need an urgent appointment, and use our online system to book routine visits.

Please note that many services are NOT covered by OHIP and you will need to pay by cash, credit or debit card. Some of these services include the following: doctor’s notes for illness or for insurance, forms for school or employment, physical exams for work forms, cosmetic procedures, etc. Please see our Guide to Uninsured Services here.

1. Please plan ahead for when you run out of medications.
2. Prescriptions will be renewed within 5 business days.
3. Ask your pharmacy to send us a request for renewing chronic medications. Pharmacies can extend many prescriptions for 30 days if the request is urgent.
4. Some medications require an appointment or blood tests before renewal. 

While these incidents are rare, we want to state our policy clearly – If you shout, swear, use abusive language, or otherwise harass any person in our office you will be asked to leave immediately.

No form of harassment will be tolerated in our clinic and you will not be allowed to continue as a patient if an incident occurs.  

The Physicians and Staff at Westside Family Health Centre are bound by law and ethics to safeguard your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information.

We collect, use and disclose your personal health information to:

•  treat and care for you;
• get payment for your treatment and care (from OHIP, WSIB, your private insurer or others);
• plan, administer and manage our internal operations;
• conduct risk management and quality improvement activities;
• teach;
• compile statistics;
• comply with legal and regulatory requirements and
• fulfill other purposes permitted or required by law.

Your request for care implies consent for our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information for purposes related to your care as noted above. All other purposes would require your express consent.

You have the right at any time to withhold or withdraw your consent to disclose personal health information. You will be required to sign the appropriate form which will be forwarded to the Privacy Officer.

For questions related to Westside Family Health Centre’s Privacy Policy, or to raise a privacy concern, please contact privacy@westsidefamilyhealth.ca