McGill Student Wellness Hub

I called to make an appointment and was told after being put on hold for half an hour that they only do same day appointments. I have to work at 1pm everyday and was told to call back when my schedule is more available. I don't understand how this can be considered "accessible" care. The whole process seems designed to make me feel like the fact that I work made it my fault I couldn't get an appointment.

A medication prescribed to me by a Wellness Hub doctor caused pseudotumor cerebri which is characterised by extreme pressure in the cranium that causes dizziness, migraines, tinnitus, nausea and permanent vision loss.

Saw Dr H. Mitchell Shulman for mild skin issues and he prescribed me with minocycline. I had heard of doxycycline before and not minocycline, so I asked why he was prescribing me with the latter. He said it was because it caused less sun sensitivity. The only side effects he advised me of were yeast infections and indigestion if I were to take the pills without sufficient water and not upright.

Two months later I went to emergency in BC and was diagnosed with pseudotumor cerebri caused by minocycline. They advised me to put in a formal complaint to the doctor I saw at McGill as minocycline has a host of serious side effects in comparison to doxycycline, a safer alternative. The emergency doctor told me he would never prescribe minocycline due to its severe side effects of which I was not made aware. I am seeing neurologists and ophthalmologists now to determine treatment. This has been the worst healthcare experience of my life.

This is not to mention the pathologist who, while collecting blood on another occasion, could not find my vein, spiked my nerve, and caused a muscle spasm.

I waited for two hours because the front desk failed to check me in and then was really rude to me. Greeter was nice though

Every time I’ve had a non-emergency health problem the clinic has been able to give me a same day appointment so long as I called at around 8: 30 (open). Once there I was treated with amazing care and sweet staff.

Not helpful at all! Tried to get help through phone because of mental issue, they basically just said I need to keep an eye on the website and check every day if there would be an available appointment spot. They didn’t even ask if my situation was urgent or not and they didn’t offer any alternative solution…Thanks for not CARE about students’ life…… It also contributed to my deduction that I will not continue my master at McGill. McGill is famous for its medical school but I feel like the school clinic do not even deserve one star.

This is the worst health clinic in all of montreal. If you have any medical concerns you're better off going to the ER. People on the phone lines are disrespectful, doctors are dismissive, it's impossible to get an appointment. I was told that the earliest appointment I could get to see a doctor was December! This is literally a joke of a clinic and reflects a great failure of the university to provide health services.

Staffs are really incompetent and not knowledgable. One time a receptionist said I need to be referred from this clinic only but I have a referral from CLSC which is a community clinic of Quebec! Extremely hard to see a doctor and their waitlists are always long.

No available appointments, broken.system needs to.be.fixed.straight up.ngl.no joke.this needs some work

My experience at the wellness hub has only been good, yes it can be challenging to get an appointment but once you’re in, it’s smooth sailing. My doctor was very nice and did a really amazing job.

My doctor kept me up-to-date and was really helpful when listening and provided helpful explanations.

Can't get an appointment or do much other than tell you to cold call every doctors office in Montreal or head to Emerg - just call 811instead

Honestly, I don't know whether they provide service or not. Every time when I make a call, what they tell me is there are no appointments available.am curious when they will have slots available. Health is a critical and vital thing, don't mess up the things by saying simply call tomorrow.otherwise, everyone's gonna end up in the emergency room.

Truly a disgrace. Impossible to get an appointment, they won’t even take your call. A slap in the face to students looking for medical care. McGill should be ashamed

Impossible to get an appointment. Please hire more doctors or organizational staff. I know it’s hard to find health care workers in the pandemic but things have been like this since before COVID. This is one of the worst aspects of McGill university and almost universally reviled by students. If McGill management cares at all about students (or would like to seem like they do!). It should not be so hard to make improvements. Staff are trying their best. The university needs to fix this.

You will wait a long time on the phone and they will tell you that it is impossible to get an appointment and to call the next week, but what is the point when they will tell you the same thing the next time. It is appalling the amount of students that need medical attention that do not get it.

Don't seek their service if you want real counselling or want to address deep seated issues. I had a few sessions with the LWA and as much as I appreciate their attempt to empathize with my issues, it was clear they didn't care about me or my life, the only thing they care about is telling you your problems are normal and empathize with you until you'll go back to school and do ur work.that's what this place is for.whenever i brought up a topic that wasn't 'productive' or too much for them to deal with, they would steer the direction of the conversation so it would focus on the "present" and things that are manageable.it was invalidating to tell someone about my life story and problems only for them to give gestural nods and tell me basically just to change my mindset.after our sessions i only felt good temporarily and my symptoms resurfaced again, because some things go deeper than reframing ur mindset or being mindful.they didn't seem to understand this though, and i heard statements that seemed to imply this "stay in the present and be happy" type of counselling was superior over others, and some problems don't require further assistance.they also seem to worship other services offered by the hub and kept redirecting me to the events that were irrelevant to my issues.this place is good if ur feeling stressed, but if ur depressed, suicidal, or have any deeper issues that stem before ur current situation, do urself a favor and seek help outside, this place will only see you and your problems as one of the many among a huge population of stressed students at mcgill and basically tell you that everyone else shares your problems.i know they're trying their best but it makes my heart sink every time i think about how invalidating my experience was.it made me question whether my past wounds weren't valid enough to explore, or at least affecting me in some way.i'm still glad i seeked the help and i would recommend trying it out and see how it goes for yourself, they're clearly trying their best given the situation.just don't expect too much and know the purpose of the hub as an organization inside mcgill.

Literally the worst clinic I have ever been to. Firstly, it is next to impossible to get an appointment closer than a month away and to do so you must sit on the phone for Atleast 15 min before someone speaks to you. Secondly, the reception is incredibly rude. I had an appointment and they gave me grief for “not completing forms” though I told them I had, to which they told me I didn’t, proceeded to sass me about it for five minutes until the receptionist realized she had been the one to lose the forms. Another time, I was scheduled two months in advance to have an operation. Getting to the clinic on the date of my operation, I was Told I couldn’t do it because a nurse had forgotten to book me in for a consultation and lab work before hand. Once again they were rude TO ME about this mistake with no apologies for the trouble. I ended up getting the operation done somewhere else because their
Wait times were so long and I had to be rescheduled (after waiting for two months for this appointment). I have found the doctors to be quite helpful and really nice. Reception is awful. Organization and booking is awful. I have friends who have seen psychiatrists there that have been down right unprofessional, and dangerous prescribing medication after 15 minutes of meeting a patient. If your insurance covers it PLEASE GO ELSEWHERE

It's not that the staff aren't trying their best, but the sheer volume of people they have to see necessitates that you wait a month to get 2-3 sessions before they have to refer you off campus.

Most often this means you do all the intake work before you're turfed to another service that.immediately makes you restart all the intake work. I am not exaggerating when I say the only difference between the Wellness Hub and googling "montreal + mental health" is that you wait 6 weeks.

Do not, I repeat, do not seek a therapist from here. Left the session feeling horrible about myself, she made me feel like I was a waste of time and that my problems were invalid.

I've been trying to book an appointment with a counselor, but nothing available. Is there really a thing named "Counselling service" at McGill? What are students who need counselling service supposed to do?

It's the middle of a pandemic and same-day care isn't an option. You can only get it if you get lucky and there's a cancelation, otherwise be prepared to wait a month. If you can get an appointment, you're pretty well good to go, but getting one in the first place takes 3-5 weeks and apparently the calendar doesn't always let front desk workers see that far. There's 35,000 students but not nearly enough doctors.

This place has helped me every way possible despite the lack of resources at times. Everyone is very nice and supportive and give their best to help.

Canada’s most respected University completely fails to provide basic support for its students. Worse, they do not seem to care. The lack of health and mental health services adequate to the needs of a multinational student community is shameful, especially during the Pandemic- the most challenging time for everyone, but especially students away from home/country. Any effort to communicate with anyone with authority is impossible.

Absolutely horrible.to try and get an appointment, they are booked weeks if not months out, no exception. To do a walk-in, you have to wake up incredibly early and line up for hours before they open for any chance of getting one. The whole system is horribly organized and does not cater to students. When I was able to get a therapy appointment, they let me know that they recommend I continue going to weekly sessions, but they had no availability to provide that for me, and I had to go somewhere else.

Personally I've only had good experiences with staff, although I know others have some horror stories, especially about councillors. The issue is with the organization. The system they have going doesn't work for anyone because McGill refuses to hire more than a couple doctors to serve tens of thousands of students. Also, the single phone line to access services is a terrible idea. Most days, it's impossible to speak with anyone at all. After making you wait on hold they eventually just hang up because they're over capacity. Today there's no holiday, no notice on their website, and it's regular operating hours, but the phone lines all say that they're closed. The upper management is incredibly unprofessional and has no regard for students' safety. A lot of staff do their best, but it's just not going to work until health of students is made a priority

EDITED REVIEW
Since the pandemic the Hub was forced to change their booking system and you can now book on any day of the week. This is so much better and the service has sincerely improved.

ORIGINAL REVIEW
Good luck getting an appointment. You can only book them on Wednesday's for the upcoming week and slots fill up within an hour or two. I called as soon as the phone lines opened and they just hang up; hold for 30 minutes to be told all the spots are full. I have to book an appointment with my family doctor out of province in the east coast to get the care I need. What a ridiculous and ineffective system. They should adopt uOttawa's health care model. It is absurd and damaging to people who need care and can't pay out of pocket to see a non-McGill based Quebec practitioner.

I have had so many bad experiences with clinicians just giving me actually wrong information and just organizational bs of losing files

They make it as hard as they can to get you an appointment with a doctor and are not much help when you get to see one

I called the day before to make an appointment with a doctor, and they told me that I couldn't make an appointment and that I should come to a drop in appointment the next day, which I did, so I got there at 8am (opening time). Waited 1h30. Finally talked to someone that told me there was no appointment for today and that I had to go to a private clinic. Useless and definitely a waste of time.

Thank you McGill.