Virtual Care vs Walk-In Clinics: Why Patients Still Show Up in Person

When COVID-19 forced Canadian healthcare to pivot to virtual care almost overnight, many predicted the end of the walk-in clinic as we know it. If patients could see a doctor from their couch, why would they ever sit in a crowded waiting room again? The question of virtual walk-in clinic Ontario models, and their equivalents in British Columbia, Alberta, and across the country, consumed healthcare planners, investors, and media outlets for years.

The data from 2021 through 2026 tells a more nuanced story. Virtual care did not replace walk-in clinics. It found its place alongside them. And in-person walk-in visits have not only returned to pre-pandemic levels. They have exceeded them. Understanding why patients still show up in person, what virtual care does well, and where it falls short is essential for any clinic operator planning for the next decade.

For the broader context on the pressures facing walk-in clinics, see our guide to the family doctor shortage and its impact on walk-in clinics.

The Virtual Care Boom: What Happened

The timeline is familiar. In March 2020, provincial governments across Canada rapidly expanded virtual care billing codes, enabling physicians to conduct consultations by phone and video for the first time at scale. Virtual care utilization exploded.

In Ontario, virtual care visits went from a small fraction of total consultations to a majority almost overnight. British Columbia, Alberta, and other provinces saw similar surges. New virtual care platforms launched weekly. Investment poured in. The virtual walk-in clinic, where patients could see a doctor without leaving home, often without an appointment, became a genuine category.

The numbers were staggering. Ontario Health reported that at the peak, over 60% of primary care visits were delivered virtually. Virtual walk-in platforms like Maple, Telus Health MyCare, and Tia Health built national patient bases. The narrative was compelling: virtual care was the future, and the physical walk-in clinic was a relic of a pre-digital age.

What Happened After: The Plateau

Then the wave crested. As pandemic restrictions eased and in-person care resumed, the trajectory changed:

Virtual care utilization levelled off. After the initial surge, the proportion of virtual visits stabilized at a significantly lower level than the pandemic peak. Ontario data shows virtual care settling to roughly 20-30% of primary care encounters, well above pre-pandemic levels but far below the 60%+ peak.
In-person visits returned. Patients went back to walk-in clinics. And not just at pre-pandemic levels. With 6.5 million Canadians now lacking a family doctor (Canadian Medical Association), walk-in volumes have exceeded pre-pandemic highs.
Some virtual care platforms struggled. Several high-profile virtual care companies reduced operations or pivoted their models as utilization growth slowed and provincial billing rules tightened.
Provincial policies evolved. Governments that had rapidly expanded virtual care billing began adding constraints, requiring in-person follow-ups for certain conditions, limiting the types of complaints suitable for virtual visits, and introducing standards for virtual care quality.

The result is not a failure of virtual care. It is a correction. The healthcare system is finding the appropriate role for a valuable but inherently limited modality.

Why Patients Still Choose Walk-In Clinics: Seven Reasons

The persistence of in-person walk-in care is not stubbornness or technological resistance. It is a rational response to the realities of healthcare.

1. Physical Examination Is Required

This is the most fundamental limitation of virtual care. A physician cannot palpate an abdomen over video. They cannot listen to lung sounds. They cannot look in an ear with an otoscope. They cannot assess a rash's texture, feel a lump, test joint range of motion, or perform a wound assessment.

For complaints that require physical examination, which encompasses a significant majority of walk-in presentations, virtual care is diagnostically incomplete. A physician who examines a patient with abdominal pain virtually can ask questions, but they cannot perform the clinical assessment that distinguishes between several possible diagnoses. They must either make a diagnostic judgment with incomplete information or refer the patient for an in-person visit anyway.

When the patient ends up needing an in-person visit after a virtual consultation, they have consumed two appointments' worth of physician time for a single problem. This is less efficient than going to a walk-in clinic directly.

2. Complaint Complexity

Walk-in clinics increasingly handle complex presentations. Patients with multiple complaints, poorly managed chronic conditions, mental health crises alongside physical symptoms, and undifferentiated complaints where the patient is not sure what is wrong.

These presentations are poorly suited to virtual care. They require time, nuance, and the ability to observe the patient in person. A patient who says "I just do not feel right" needs a comprehensive assessment that virtual care cannot provide. A patient presenting with three separate complaints, a persistent cough, knee pain, and a suspicious mole, needs an in-person visit where all three can be addressed.

3. Trust and Human Connection

Healthcare is fundamentally a trust-based relationship. Many patients, particularly those seeing a doctor for the first time (as is common in walk-in clinics), need the reassurance that comes from being in the same room as their physician. They need to feel heard, seen, and taken seriously.

Virtual care, even at its best, creates an emotional distance. The screen is a barrier. Technical glitches, audio delays, and the inability to read full body language all reduce the sense of connection. For patients who are anxious, vulnerable, or dealing with sensitive health issues, the in-person encounter remains profoundly important.

4. Digital Literacy and Access Barriers

Not every Canadian can access virtual care. The barriers are real and significant:

Technology access: Not all patients have a smartphone, tablet, or computer with a camera. Not all have reliable internet, particularly in rural and northern communities.
Digital literacy: Older adults, newcomers to Canada, and individuals with limited education may struggle with video consultation platforms, online booking systems, and digital forms.
Language barriers: Virtual care platforms are often English-only or have limited multilingual support. In-person encounters, where the physician can use visual cues and gestures, are often easier for patients with limited English or French.
Privacy concerns: Some patients live in shared housing or crowded conditions where having a private conversation about health concerns is not possible. A walk-in clinic exam room provides privacy that a virtual visit from a shared living space does not.

These barriers disproportionately affect the most vulnerable populations, the same populations that are most likely to rely on walk-in clinics because they lack a family doctor.

5. Virtual Care Limitations for Procedures and Tests

Walk-in clinics regularly perform procedures that virtual care simply cannot: wound suturing, abscess drainage, joint injections, ear irrigation, foreign body removal, eye examinations, and point-of-care testing. Patients who need a strep test, a urinalysis, or a pregnancy test need to be physically present.

Similarly, when a walk-in physician determines that bloodwork, imaging, or an ECG is needed, they can order it on the spot and often refer the patient to a nearby lab or diagnostic facility. Virtual care providers can order tests, but the patient still needs to go somewhere to get them done, adding another step, another trip, and another wait.

6. Continuity of Encounter

A walk-in visit is a self-contained encounter. The patient walks in, sees the doctor, gets examined, receives a diagnosis or workup plan, picks up a prescription, and leaves. Everything happens in one visit.

Virtual care frequently fragments this experience. The physician consults virtually, but the patient may need to go in-person for an exam, then to a lab for tests, then back to a virtual or in-person follow-up for results. What would have been a single walk-in visit becomes multiple touchpoints across days or weeks. For patients who are already struggling with long wait times and system complexity, this fragmentation is a significant barrier.

7. Immediacy and Urgency

Walk-in clinics serve patients who need care today, not next week. Virtual care can provide same-day access in many cases, but not always. Some virtual platforms have wait times of their own. And for complaints where the patient feels they need to be seen, as opposed to talked to, the walk-in clinic is the natural destination.

There is also a psychological dimension: showing up in person signals to the patient that they have taken action. For many patients, the act of going to a clinic is itself therapeutic. It breaks the cycle of worry and waiting.

What Virtual Care Does Well

A balanced assessment requires acknowledging where virtual care genuinely adds value. It is not a failure. It is a tool with a specific scope:

Follow-up visits: Patients who have been seen in person and need a check-in, test result review, or medication adjustment are ideal virtual care candidates.
Prescription renewals: Patients on stable medications who need refills benefit from the convenience of virtual renewals without an in-person visit.
Minor, well defined complaints: Urinary tract infection symptoms in a young woman, pink eye in a child with classic presentation, a medication question. These are complaints where virtual care is efficient and appropriate.
Mental health counselling: Talk therapy and medication management for stable mental health conditions work well virtually. Some patients even prefer the comfort of their own environment for mental health discussions.
Rural and remote access: For patients who are hours from the nearest walk-in clinic, virtual care provides access that would otherwise not exist. This is one of virtual care's most important contributions to Canadian healthcare equity.
After-hours access: Virtual care platforms that operate outside traditional clinic hours fill a genuine gap for patients who need medical advice in the evening or on weekends.

The Hybrid Model: Where Healthcare Is Heading

The future is not virtual or in-person. It is both, integrated thoughtfully. The hybrid model is emerging as the standard for forward thinking walk-in clinics:

Triage to the right modality: Patients who check in with complaints suitable for virtual care (prescription renewals, follow-ups, minor complaints) are offered a virtual visit option. Patients who need physical examination or procedures are seen in person.
Virtual queue management: Patients join the walk-in queue remotely and arrive when their turn is approaching, reducing in-clinic wait times and waiting room congestion.
Pre-visit preparation: AI pre-screening systems collect patient information digitally before the encounter, whether the visit is virtual or in-person. This ensures the physician has clinical context regardless of modality.
Post-visit follow-up: Patients seen in person for an initial complaint are offered virtual follow-up visits for test results, medication checks, and ongoing management.

This model maximizes the strengths of both modalities: in-person care for what requires physical presence, virtual care for what does not.

Why Walk-In Clinics Must Optimize for In-Person Care

Given that in-person visits have returned to and exceeded pre-pandemic levels, walk-in clinics need to focus on making in-person care as efficient and high-quality as possible. This is where many clinics are falling short.

The in-person walk-in visit has remained largely unchanged for decades: patient walks in, waits, sees the doctor from a cold start, and leaves. The workflow has not been optimized, and the technology gap between walk-in clinics and the rest of the healthcare system is significant.

AI pre-screening makes the in-person visit as efficient as virtual care proponents always promised virtual care would be. Here is the comparison:

Virtual care advantage over traditional walk-in: The doctor has some context (the patient described their complaint when booking), and the patient does not wait in a physical room.

AI pre-screened walk-in advantage: The doctor has a comprehensive, structured clinical summary including full history of present illness, medications, allergies, and red flags. The patient can be physically examined. Procedures can be performed. Tests can be ordered and sometimes completed on site. And the visit is a single, self-contained encounter.

When a walk-in clinic implements AI pre-screening, the information advantage that virtual care used to hold disappears. The physician walks in with at least as much context as a virtual visit provides, and they can do a physical exam on top of it. For most clinical presentations, this is strictly superior.

Walk-in clinics that worry they are losing patients to virtual care should focus less on competing with virtual platforms and more on making their in-person experience so efficient and well-prepared that patients prefer it.

Provincial Context: Virtual Walk-In Clinic Ontario, BC, and Alberta Policies

The regulatory landscape for virtual care varies by province and continues to evolve.

Ontario

Ontario has maintained virtual care billing codes introduced during the pandemic but has added guidelines on appropriate use. The Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons requires physicians to ensure that virtual care is clinically appropriate for the specific complaint and patient. Ontario has also invested in Ontario Health Teams, which are designed to integrate virtual and in-person care within regional networks. The virtual walk-in clinic Ontario market remains active, with multiple platforms operating, but growth has stabilized.

British Columbia

British Columbia has taken a more structured approach to virtual care regulation. The province has established standards for virtual care delivery and has focused on integrating virtual care with the existing network of walk-in clinics and primary care homes. BC's longer average walk-in wait times (93 minutes) create strong demand for virtual alternatives, but the province has also emphasized that virtual care should complement, not replace, in-person care.

Alberta

Alberta's Connect Care initiative is creating a province-wide clinical information system that supports both virtual and in-person encounters. The province has maintained virtual care billing codes and encouraged hybrid models. Alberta's Health Information Act (HIA) requirements for privacy impact assessments apply to virtual care platforms, creating a compliance framework that favours established, privacy conscious providers.

Other Provinces

Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Atlantic provinces have each developed their own virtual care frameworks. The common themes are consistent: virtual care is a valued modality, but it is not a replacement for in-person care, and clinics are expected to integrate both thoughtfully.

For the broader technology trends shaping Canadian healthcare in 2026, including virtual care integration, see our healthcare technology trends guide.

The Bottom Line: Walk-In Clinics Are Irreplaceable

Virtual care is a valuable addition to the Canadian healthcare toolkit. It should be part of every clinic's offering. But it does not replace the walk-in clinic.

Patients still show up in person because in-person care is, for most clinical presentations, better care. It allows physical examination, supports complex presentations, provides single-visit resolution, and serves patients who cannot access virtual platforms. With 6.5 million Canadians without a family doctor and walk-in volumes at all-time highs (as explored in our article on why walk-in clinics are busier than ever), the in-person walk-in clinic is more essential than it has ever been.

The opportunity for walk-in clinics is not to become virtual care providers. It is to make their in-person care so well-prepared, so efficient, and so patient-centred that it delivers an experience virtual care cannot match. AI pre-screening, giving the doctor comprehensive clinical context before they walk into the room, is the single most effective step toward that goal.

The median wait time in Canada has hit 30 weeks (Fraser Institute). Walk-in clinic waits average an hour or more in most major markets. 30% of patients leave without being seen. 93% of consumers prefer healthcare providers that offer digital tools (Accenture, 2024). The patients are telling us what they need. It is time for walk-in clinics to deliver.

FAQ

Is virtual care replacing walk-in clinics in Canada?

No. Virtual care utilization surged during the pandemic but has since stabilized at a level well below peak. In-person walk-in visits have returned to and exceeded pre-pandemic volumes. Virtual care has found its role for specific use cases like follow-ups, prescription renewals, minor complaints, and rural access, but it does not replace the in-person visit for the majority of walk-in clinic presentations that require physical examination, procedures, or complex assessment. The trend is toward hybrid models that integrate both modalities.

What types of visits work best for virtual care?

Virtual care is most effective for follow-up visits, prescription renewals, mental health counselling, minor and well defined complaints (such as UTI symptoms or pink eye), medication questions, and test result reviews. It is also valuable for rural and remote patients who are far from in-person care. Complaints that require physical examination, procedures, diagnostic testing, or multi-system assessment are better suited to in-person visits. The key is appropriate triage, matching the patient's complaint to the right modality.

Why are walk-in clinic volumes still rising despite virtual care availability?

Three main reasons. First, the family doctor shortage continues to worsen. 6.5 million Canadians now lack a GP, pushing more patients to walk-in clinics. Second, virtual care's limitations mean many patients still need in-person assessment, especially for complaints involving physical examination. Third, population growth, immigration, and post-COVID deferred care are adding new demand that virtual care alone cannot absorb. Virtual care serves as a complement, not a substitute, for the walk-in clinic capacity that Canada needs.

How can walk-in clinics compete with virtual care convenience?

The most effective strategy is not to compete on convenience but to deliver an in-person experience that is efficient, well-prepared, and clinically superior. AI pre-screening gives walk-in physicians the same information advantage that virtual care providers have (patient context before the encounter) plus the ability to physically examine the patient. Queue management tools that show estimated wait times and allow virtual check-in address the convenience gap. The goal is to make the walk-in visit so smooth that patients choose it for clinical quality rather than settling for virtual care out of frustration.

Should walk-in clinics offer virtual care services?

Many clinics benefit from offering both modalities. Virtual care can be used for follow-up visits, prescription renewals, and simple complaints, freeing in-person capacity for presentations that require physical examination. However, walk-in clinics should not dilute their core strength, in-person care, by over-investing in virtual infrastructure. The priority should be optimizing the in-person experience (through AI pre-screening, queue management, and workflow efficiency) while offering virtual care as a complementary channel for appropriate use cases.

Make your in-person visits as efficient as virtual care promised to be. Hilthealth is an AI-powered pre-screening system that gives walk-in physicians comprehensive clinical context before every encounter, turning your waiting room into a preparation room. Explore the wait time crisis facing Canadian walk-in clinics, learn why walk-in clinics are busier than ever, or contact us to see how Hilthealth can help your clinic deliver in-person care that patients prefer.