I stumbled into this place with an open head wound from cracking my head open on cement. I found it by looking up the nearest walk-in on my phone. I haven't needed to use health care in years. I had a bleeding head, blurry vision, nausea, and a fever from the fall. The receptionist tells me my health card is invalid and they won't treat me. I ask her why and what I should do and she and her colleague start barking at me that it's not their problem. They were even too busy to give me the phone number to the ministry to straighten the situation out. I had just been traveling the week before, so I had my passport, Cdn birth certificate, and driver's license on me and offered to show her these documents, but she just kicked me out. They were rude, dismissive, and had NO compassion. It was obvious from my symptoms that it was something that needed to be attended to immediately. My husband is a firefighter who would never turn away someone with a head trauma, so I can't believe anyone in healthcare would behave this way.
Turns out the health card was an administrative error that could have been solved had the office made the effort to call the ministry and allow me to talk with them.