A spokesperson for Guelph General Hospital says the first full day of taking phone appointments for the local COVID-19 Assessment Centre has been mostly positive, but some are experiencing long wait times on the phone and in person at the clinic.
On Wednesday, Guelph’s COVID-19 Assessment Centre began its first full day of taking phone appointments, days after the provincial government ordered all similar clinics in Ontario move to that system.
The first day on the new system went positively, said Perry Hagerman, senior communications specialist at Guelph General Hospital, which operates the clinic at 400 Southgate Dr.
“Mornings will definitely be the busy times on the phones and at times the number will ring busy,” said Hagerman. “Callers just need to call back in a few minutes.”
Canvassing five people leaving the clinic around 4 p.m., most told GuelphToday they were able to get a same-day appointment by phone within 10 minutes on the line.
Once they showed up for their scheduled appointment, those same people stood another 30 minutes to an hour in line outside. About 20 people were in the outdoor line up at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
Hagerman said the clinic was at its daily limit by 4 p.m., but there were still appointments available to be reserved for the next day.
Requiring a negative COVID-19 test to make a visit to his critically ill father in long term care, James Gordon called the new appointment line early on Wednesday morning.
Gordon said it was not a simple process.
“I would expect ‘okay I am headed for being on hold forever here’ — it was worse,” said Gordon, who is a city councillor. “You would call and it would ring twice and then you would automatically get disconnected.”
After 22 more attempts with similar results he finally got through to the line on try number 24.
Once he was able to get through to the line Gordon said he first had to navigate the automated phone tree which asked, among other questions, whether or not he was symptomatic.
“I worry that some people will get confused by the system,” said Gordon. “For my mom, who is 89 years old, she wouldn’t have been able to navigate that system herself.”
Gordon said he was eventually able to speak to a live person and the process for making an appointment was smooth after that.
“I just kept doing it and then eventually I was so surprised someone actually answered the phone,” said Gordon.
He added: “I think because its provincially mandated everybody is scrambling because the rules change every other day. I don't blame them for that but the bigger picture is that we need to have had some planning when we knew we were into our second wave and it feels like they are flying by the seat of their pants.”
His experience is echoed by others sharing their frustrations on social media Wednesday, the first full day with the new appointment system.
One woman on Twitter called the process a 'gong show' saying she spent four hours on the phone trying to get through.
Guelph number is finally working 1-226-773-1922 what a gong show 4 hours.
— Rebekah P (@bekster5) October 7, 2020
Gordon also wondered why his phone indicated that the phone number was coming up as being in Windsor when he dialed it.
Hagerman said the reason a phone may indicate the call is going to Windsor is not because the calls are being forwarded there. It has more to do with the short time frame in which the clinic had to move to the new system.
"The phone number shows up as Windsor because in order to get a local number we would have had to wait two weeks," he said. "The phone numbers currently available were all outside our area."
