Waiting for eVisitNB? Blaming the Triple Virus Threat

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It’s not just brick-and-mortar health care facilities that are experiencing long wait times lately. People looking to take advantage of eVisitNB are also waiting longer than normal.

The online medical service matches patients with a medical professional for virtual consultations for people with minor illnesses.

The platform’s goal was to keep patients out of the ER and help reduce wait times there, but people are now complaining about six-hour wait times and appointments eVisits cancelled.

The platform’s co-founder, Dr. Hanif Chatur, says the triple threat of RSV, COVID and seasonal flu is behind the long wait.

“I don’t think anyone anticipated that RSV, influenza, COVID-19 would sort of come together as a triple storm,” Chatur said.

“It was impossible to predict these three viruses, otherwise I think everyone would have been well prepared to receive [patients.]”

Peak of requests

Chatur said eVisitNB saw a 100% increase in patient numbers between September and November with more than 1,000 requests per day.

The platform can typically handle between 500 and 700 virtual appointments per day.

He says the platform has increased its staff by 50% and hopes the long waiting times will end in the new year.

Dr. Hanif Chatur, co-founder of eVisitNB, says RSV, COVID and seasonal flu are to blame for the long wait times. (eVisitNB)

“We’ve embarked on a fairly aggressive recruiting campaign and will be increasing our numbers by about 50% in the coming weeks,” Chatur said.

Chatur said the platform recruits medical professionals from out of province because technology means they don’t have to live here to make a difference.

“We go through a process where they get licensed in New Brunswick, then we train them on the platform, support them, and then they’re ready to deal with New Brunswickers,” Chatur said.

Expiry time

There is also a problem with the technology, as many people have complained that after waiting over six hours to be seen by a medical professional, they were interrupted and logged out of their account.

Chatur said it was a problem with the system that was logging people out after a while.

To solve this problem, the platform has started to only allow a certain number of people to book appointments, and once they have been served, more people can then register.

Info Morning – Moncton7:48New Brunswick’s virtual waiting rooms are also overwhelmed

Dr. Hanif Chatur is an emergency physician and co-founder of EVisit NB.

He says this has mostly solved the timeout problem.

“For example, from December 13 to 16, there was no downtime,” Chatur said.

“Hopefully downtime won’t be a problem in the future.”

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