WELL Health - Pemberton Marine Medical Clinic

They rush you in and out and don’t bother to listen to what’s wrong with you. You’re better off just going into a hospital. Don’t waste your time here. The doctors don’t care.

I’ve been coming to this clinic regularly since 2019. I wouldn’t say it’s always been pleasant, but I usually do get what I need from the physicians in this clinic. They’re not very thorough so if you’re looking for a physician that is attentive and compassionate, this isn’t the clinic for you.

I went in yesterday for my appointment and came home mentally struggling from the treatment I received by the male receptionist and Dr. Bugeja. I struggle with mental health and this is precisely why I come to see the dr. I went in to check in for my appt and was greeted with a ‘what do you want’ type of look by the male reception. I said I’m here to check in for my appt. He says ‘I’m on the phone’ but in a manner that came across as if I was bothering him. Very condescending. And the way he looked at me made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I was already dealing with serious mental health issues walking into the clinic.

I did mention it to him but he didn’t bother to listen to me and proceeded to tell me he’s ‘busy’. Very unprofessional.

Going to see a dr isn’t always a positive experience for a lot of people. Many of us are dealing with very serious health issues. You just never know what someone is dealing with. I think we can all agree that it’s important for medical professionals to BE KIND to patients because of this reason. Male reception was anything but kind. He was rude, condescending, clearly hates his job, on his personal phone while patients were waiting to check in for their appointments, no compassion, and not eager to help patients. Dr Bugeja comes out and tries to cancel my appt. He said ‘other patients take precedence over you so we can’t see you’. APPALLING! I told him I wasn’t there to see him anyways.

I did end up seeing another doctor who was just as careless and condescending. Imagine being sick and coming to the clinic to seek answers from a medical doctor, and this is the way you’re treated.

After reading many, many, many reviews on here and hearing from other patients in the area, I am surprised WELL HEALTH has not yet taken any active steps in improving their practices. Especially this particular clinic.

My guess is WELL HEALTH will comment here ask me to email customer service, and forward my complaint to the clinic, which will fall on deaf ears at this clinic because nothing ever changes. It gets worse over time.

Dr Bugeja isn’t a great doctor either. He asks a lot of unrelated and extremely personal questions. He also tells everyone he owns the clinic. He doesn’t.

WELL HEALTH - Please forward this to your superiors. The reviews and complaints are getting worse and worse. Sick patients deserve better.

If I could give a zero I would. Whoever was working on March 16th, 2023 at 10: 15am behind the desk (there were 3 girls) needs to be fired. It took all my might not to call the authorities regarding such negligence. I walked in for a very serious problem and told the girl who asked me what it was about. She proceeded to say there first availability was Saturday.

My husband was scheduled for a biopsy so we took the afternoon off work and arrived about 10 minutes early. About half an hour later (20 minutes into our appointment time) we heard reception making calls cancelling appointments for later that day because of an emergency. Then reception came and told us the doctor wasn't feeling well and wanted to go home so our appointment was canceled. We were told to reschedule, taking another afternoon off work. How did she not know sooner she wasn't well enough for an appointment sitting in the waiting room?

Doctor Bugeja does not care at all for pregnant women. I reported pregnancy problems and severe back pain at week 4 and 5. All he did was saying that it is not a problem! I asked several times for ultrasound and for referral to maternity clinic and he refused every time! Week 8 I finally rushed into North Vancouver emergency room and was told that ultrasound would have predicted the problems! I miscarried for 5 extremely painful days and went to hospital twice for that in week 9 of my pregnancy. Never trust Dr. Bugeja.

DO NOT GO TO DR BUGEJA. HE WILL WASTE YOUR TIME. I recently had a phone call appointment scheduled with him. I waited an hour for him to call me for my appointment. When he did call, apparently, the receptionist wrote down the wrong travel location (it was a travel consulation), so he said he would have to research it and call back. I wait another hour and a half and no call back before it closed. When I called 5 days later (I was hoping he would still call), the receptionist was extremely rude and told me that I just needed to book another appointment. When I explained that I had already waited 2 and a half hours the day of my appointment (plus the 5 days I waited for call) for an appointment that never happened, she told me my phone call appointment wasn't important and this happens in doctors' offices when they are busy. When I told the receptionist that they should call if they can't fit in an appointment, she said her time isn't worth calling appointments that can't be fit in. When I finally called 7 days later and asked to speak with him, he did not apologize and told me that I was belligerent before hanging up on me. It's a shame as I have been a fan of the other doctor, but I can not recommend this office to anyone with such inconsiderate and rude staff members.

I had a telephone appointment at 11: 30; noone called me and i waited until 12: 30, nothing happened. I called two time and left messages. Eventually doctor called me at 2: 15 pm.
Then dr told me that he will sent the prescription to the pharmacy immediately. It dud not happened. I had to call again @4: 30 pm and then they sent it out.

Very unorganized clinic.

Felt so unwelcomed. Doctor told me he didn’t have time to hear about what my injury was, made me feel unimportant and basically rushed me out. I Called and made an appointment for work safe injury and basically told me he couldn’t help me, said “well what do you want me to do? ”, felt accusatory when asking me questions, and felt like he blamed me for not telling the receptionist what my injury was when she’s didn’t ask what my injury was whenever I made the appointment. Horrible and. Upsetting experience to the point where I was in tears. Waste a lot of my time. So disappointing. I had only had good experiences at this clinic which is why i went there but because of this I won’t be returning.

Happy friendly staffs. The doctor put a significant time on clarifying the whole process which I was about to do. She helped me to get relaxed and comfortable and did a quite good job. Thank you

Useless doctors, do not recommend.

I had UTI few years ago and went to this clinic 4 times (walk-in) because I didn't know what was happening with my body back then.
I saw 4 different doctors here and none of them were able to recognize signs of UTI and told me my sharp pain on my stomach was because:
Dr. 1: "I was eating too much fatty food (I really don't) "
Dr. 2: "muscle ache"
Dr. 3: gave me some random antibiotic (didn't work)
Dr. 4: really not sure what's happening, go home
(To be fair, I went to emergencies because it got too painful one time and they couldn't figure it out as well.)
5th time a female doctor was able to diagnose UTI. Clueless and useless doctors I have ever seen in my life and I had to live with UTI pain for about 3 months because of them.

-update Aug/1 2019-
I have a legal name and Lucy is my preferred name.
And no, it did not happen at other clinic. It's this clinic at Pemberton Plaza beside the Save On Foods on Marine Dr.

Was given a walk in ETA, they blew past it by several times. Awful wait, awful experience, awful time. Go anywhere else. I'd rather risk it with self-treatment then go here

I’m living in Vancouver for 17 years i didn’t see any family doctor like doctor Dahi.
He is very friendly and wonderful
He knows what he’s doing

Useless, the doctor had decided he'd done enough and just got up and walked out half way through.

The doctor was super rude. And kept looking at his laptop the whole time. Almost told me to get out of the clinic. This was my first and last visit. Never again!

Get here at 615pm very sick and wanting to see a doctor staff laughing and chatting in the back while I stand at the empty front desk for ten minutes before even seeing a staff member. Then I'm promptly told sorry we close in 30 mins to no more walk in.brutal.

This clinic took me in with open arms I was so sick and stressed due to personal issues. The doctor immediatly made me feel relieved and less stress and the receptionist was so sweet to me. Dr. Bugeja is a great doctor I recommend for everyone a very kind empathetic man with great knowledge. Thanks again.

I am filing a complaint with Coastal Health about this which will include more points that are too personal to include in this review.

My girlfriend has been there twice and has had appalling experiences. The first time, they misdiagnosed her and prescribed her medicine that did not help her. When calling her to come in, they phoned her parents house. Her dad answered and said that this he was not her and that he was her father. They told her dad personal informal about her prescriptions, causing family drama. The second time she went, she saw Dr. Melvin Bruchet. He was very rude to her. The asked her what medicine she thinks she needs, as if she should know. He told her you wait a week to get lab results before prescribing anything, she has been in pain since she was last there and it is getting worse so I feel like he should at least suggest going to the hospital. He ended up prescribing her an antibiotic so she made sure to tell him that she was on birth control, in case it could have an effect. When going to the pharmacy, she was informed that she could not take the antibiotic with birth control. When asking to also get a prescription refilled, he pouted and said "seriously? ". This whole process took 45 minutes, not including the 1.5 hour wait. The first visit was a 4.5 hour wait.

Apparently at capacity every day before closing although its empty inside.god forbid the staff stays a minute past closing time to help someone in need.

Finally a good walk in clinic on the North Shore! Dr Bugeja was extremely helpful and his passion for medicine shows!

Best place to go the receptionist Paula is a true gem, and Dr Chow on Sundays is efficient and very professional so blessed to have this place.