The West End Non-insured Walk-in Clinic (NIWIC) was established in 2012 as a partnership of seven Toronto Community Health Centers (CHC) run by Access Alliance Multicultural Health & Community Services, to fulfill an unmet need: to provide care for those without health coverage whether due to precarious status, failed refugee claims or the three-month OHIP wait.
The 7 partnering Community Health Centres in Toronto’s west end in this initiative include Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services, Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood and Community Health Centre, Unison Health and Community Services, LAMP Community Health Centre, Black Creek Community Health Centre, Stonegate Community Health Centre and Rexdale Community Health Centre. This nurse-led clinic was launched at Access Point on Jane to provide episodic care at no cost to non-status/non-insured individuals who do not have a Primary Care Provider (MD or NP) and live in the city of Toronto.
This service is being provided to increase and improve timely access to primary care for non-status/non-insured people in order to avoid or reduce the progression or development of more severe health issues – `the right service at the right time’
The NIWIC is located at AccessPoint on Jane (761 Jane St 2nd Fl, Ste 200B), and opens Mondays & Thursdays from 4:00 pm to 7:30 pm
A CHC referral process has been established to link patients with chronic and/or complex health issues to a Primary Care Provider at one of the 7 NIWIC partner CHCs. Streamlining this process has helped to manage complex patients, especially those with chronic conditions in need of ongoing follow-up and treatment.
Anyone matching the following criteria can use the West End Non-Insured Walk-In Clinic during open hours;
i. People with no-status/the non-insured
ii. People who are in the 3 month wait period for their OHIP
iii. People who do not have a primary care provider (ie. no doctor or nurse practitioner)
iv. People who live west of Yonge Street in the City of Toronto
At the NIWIC people will receive episodic care which means care for a particular or specific medical problem, without an ongoing relationship being established between the person and health care professionals – if medically required there will be follow-up; referral to medical specialists as appropriate; referral to other support services for social determinant of health issues (like housing, food insecurity, health costs, etc), and people identified with chronic and/or unstable conditions will be referred to one of the partner CHCs as appropriate.
There is no cost for accessing services at the NIWIC and telephone interpretation is available;
NIWIC fact sheet for service providers: English French
For more information about the NIWIC please contact Monika Dalmacio mdalmacio@accessalliance.ca