Student Health Care at Western University

Would give this a zero if I could. Front desk workers are unhelpful. I have to repeatedly call the clinic for anything regarding health services, medications or appointments to be done. Doctors are not helpful, have no availability and do not adequately inform you regarding your treatment. The only reason I come here is due to the convenience as I have a very busy schedule. Wouldn't recommend to any other Western students I can't wait until I can stop using this place.

I essentially use this as my family doctor. I always book with Dr. Naher (a female MD in on Fridays) and I’ve had very positive experiences. She listens, advises, and allows you to make your own decisions (within reason). Not sure why the other reviews are poor.

Callous staff… also clearly this is a common problem with the clinic but how and why are you charging students $70 for being a minute late and locking them out of their student accounts? Absolutely insane and unethical

If you're even a minute late you'll be charged $40-$70 dollars, with zero opportunity for appeal - just like all the other comments here. The front desk staff are incredibly rude.

If I could give this place zero I would. The receptionists are rude and unhelpful, the walk in clinics are so much better than here sadly. The workers who are native english speakers speak in a very degrading tone. The doctor who works on Wednesday's after 4 pm also needs to be reevaluated with his decision making skills.

Did not have a good experience with Dr. Kopechanski. Seemed ignorant/disinterested in helping with mental health issues and was rude about requests. Will not be coming back to her.

Ill be so real I don't even know how this place is allowed to call themselves a clinic, the receptionist does not even understand what procedures are called what, I called enquiring about TB tests and immunization record confirmations and was left on hold for a couple minutes and was given a mumbled response of I don't know. Upon asking if this is covered by Purplecare I received the response of "what even is Purplecare". I don't even care if it's not covered but how can you not even know what Purplecare is? The building is literally located on campus. My entire conversation was questions to which I received convoluted answers or answers that showed a lack of knowledge to what is going on. I was then asked to be transferred to the information desk so I could have someone answer these questions and was then transferred over to the financial desk. Not to mention that some of these late time prices are ridiculous.

Some of worst medical care I’ve ever experienced. I was two minutes late to an appointment that took a month to make because I was in a mental health crisis, they turned me away and didn’t have any appointments for another month. Today I tried to call them again to renew my meds. They do not have any appointments available for the next three weeks and I have one week of meds left, meaning if I didn’t have my family doctor I would either have to go to the emergency room or go through serious side affects. They also tried to charge me SEVENTY DOLLARS because I was two minutes late to an appointment and actively suicidal. They claimed it as a no show despite the fact that I showed up, and charged me a weeks worth of groceries for those two minutes. Absolutely disgusting and despicable care. Do better.

Please make an online booking system. The phone waits are ridiculous. Makes the health system inaccessible for many.

I'm appalled but the way this place runs. They have a lack of empathy and only care about what they can charge you for services, late fees, and no-shows. Other clinics are much more efficient and operate with better terms and price structures for students. Please go anywhere else! Especially if you are a student. There are clinics in London that won't charge you for the health clearance tests needed for school. This clinic only wants to waste your time and make money off of you.

Edit (full transparency) : the staff there are bad at recieving criticism. I emailed the head nurse, Deborah Turnbull for an unfair no-show fee that I was invoiced since I had showed up to my appointment. I gave her some feedback about how I thought these fees were unfair and she reported me to my faculty (the faculty of medicine) for daring to critique the way the clinic operates. As a business, they should be open to criticism instead of retaliating.

I normally never write reviews but I’ve been on the phone for the past 2 hours and when I finally got a hold of someone they hung up, so I had to call and wait all over again which I did not because it’s a waste of time. I’m better off just going to the pharmacy and buying my own medicine at this point…. This is insane just to book an appointment. Other universities offer an online booking system for appointments I think western should consider adapting one of these as it would save students sooo much time!

They don't fax refills, super frustrating. Also doctors cancelling on you and leaving you without a refill.

Was on hold for over 1 hour and when I finally got to speak to someone they told me I can come in two weeks. Then I was hung up on. Classic western services

Health services used to be as reliable as it gets, and now it's functionally inaccessible. Western spent millions turning over Thames Hall to put Health Services in it, and in the process somehow managed to bring wait times on the phone from 5 minutes to 2+ hours and not even "turn the phones on" when the clinic opens (at the time of my writing this, it is 9: 30 am on a Tuesday, phone lines are off.). Western's disregard for student needs has been made clear with whatever cuts have been made to Student Health's operating budget this year. Typical Western - all about appearances and no interest in function. But you can bet they're still tacking on the same huge health services fee to tuition that they always have, if not more.

If I didn’t need the healthcare, I wouldn’t use student health.
The receptionists either don’t answer your calls, transfer you to the information nurse only for her to transfer you back, or are plainly rude on a routine basis.
I’ve been charged for showing up on time (aka not 10 minutes early) and even arrived for appointments only to be told it was supposed to be a phone appointment (despite calling them a few days prior to confirm whether it was in person or not).
I have been ill informed of procedures and appointments regarding my health numerous times (e.g. Not knowing the proper procedure for certain referrals).
This isn’t even to mention that you don’t offer long term counselling.
The only reason I give above 1 stars is because of Dr. Hocko. He’s been consistently open minded and willing to listen to me about my health throughout my time so far at Western. Even when things don’t go right he take accountability and apologizes. It’s refreshing to see in the medical field. Thank god for the doctors here who care because if not the clinic wouldn’t be if any use to students at all.

Please prepare yourselves for a constant lack of empathy and attention from the reception staff. Especially those seeking support for mental health, you are valid and you just need to get past making the appointments to begin seeking help. I am sorry western can’t do better.

I've never had a bad experience here; Dr. Talon was excellent. Sure the phone system is slow and receptionists can be a bit rushed, but that's the same as any clinic in Ontario. It's a good resource for students

The policies at this place for acquiring medications are appalling and unlike any other place I’ve been to, and the receptionists are frequently rude and dismissive. They need to be retrained to know how to deal with patients ESPECIALLY when dealing with patients in fragile mental states. I was informed that the wait list to see a counsellor on campus was 5 months despite the fact that I was in extreme mental distress, and after only 3 months I was informed that the wait list is in fact only one week, and they were “unsure where I got the information from” and I shouldn’t have had to wait longer than a week.

The receptionist 1 today is extremely rude. If you don’t wanna serve the students, don’t. She just has such a bad attitude

The receptionists at this place are absolutely awful. They were rude, dismissive, and made a COMPLETELY out of line comment about my medication. I left feeling extremely unsafe and hesitant to make any future appointments.

Dr Charlton is awesome and the best Dr I have had in a long time. That being said, the policies at this place for ADHD meds and the rudeness, gaslighting and dismissive behaviour of the receptionists is appalling. These people need to be retrained and actually gain an understanding of how medical conditions affect people. The summer schedule is consistently a mess, combined with their not patient centered policies, it makes it almost impossible to get an appointment. Whoever is overseeing this place does not care about patients. At all.

The doctors at this clinic have been great. Even during the pandemic the doctor I have had has been very helpful.

Most of the doctors are absolutely wonderful. However, the institution takes advantage of students by charging them absurd sums of money at any opportunity they get. In addition, the system is extremely disorganized and difficult to navigate.

Im not sure who the 1 start people have dealt with but Western SHS have exceeded what I have come to expect from GPs.

There are some excellent doctors at SHS. However, there was extreme rudeness from a couple of the front desk staff workers last visit. Horrifying.

Absolutely horrible service, if you're a student I recommend going elsewhere. They don't care about students/patients at all, only trying to make a profit with charges, they CAUSE mental health distress more than anything.

I was late for two minutes for my appointment cuz the receptionist somehow couldn’t check in for me for minutes and told i won’t be able to get medical care here today whatsoever. My check ins were done in two seconds for all my previous ones done by a receptionist. When I missed my appointments, it was never a problem and the receptionists were always kind enough to put me back in the list. The only thing different is that I’m wearing a mask for safety, Interesting. Probably this is something common and I just happen to experience it the first time along with my first time wearing a mask, kinda in shock. Rip my forty minutes risking the virus to get health care but failed lol. I used to not get why others dislike health services cuz everyone I met before were so kind and nice to me, but now I see where the dislike coming:)

Five stars for all the amazing loving people that helped me there though. They’re awesome!

The nurses are super nice and accepting, and Dr. Malone is excellent. The appointment times can be inconvenient; you'll definitely want to schedule your appointments ahead of time because they fill up quickly. Other than that, I've only had positive experiences.

Impatient reception, felt rushed and was not offered proper advice or assistance. Told to book an appointment on the phone a different day instead of offering to book one on the spot with the receptionist. Felt completely overlooked and unimportant. Have had previous disappointments with this location in the past. Possibly the worst health service option for any Western student.

Absolutely horrible experience every visit. Avoid if at all possible, these people are nasty, cruel, and void of empathy/humanity.

I attended UWO between 1999-2008. My experiences were extremely positive overall. There will always be a jerk in any organization you interface with in life. Given the poor reviews, things have indeed changed. I honestly thought they were aces with me.

Only possible to get an appointment if you call exactly at 9: 00 when they open. I made an appointment for two issues involving my ears and throat that were very possibly connected to each other and the doctor told me to pick which one I wanted to deal with today. She then rushed me through the rest of the appointment. She also would not refer me to a ENT specialist for an ear problem that I have had on and off my whole life and instead gave me a prescription for a medication I had used before that was unsuccessful. For the amount that it costs to go to this school I am extremely disappointed in how poor the health care services are.