A B.C. telehealth company is working to ensure British Columbians have same-day access to primary health physicians.
Many individuals without a family doctor often lack timely access to essential primary health-care services, leaving them unsure where to seek medical advice when urgent issues arise or spending hours waiting at walk-in clinics, urgent care centers, or even emergency rooms.
For those lucky enough to have a family doctor, getting a same-day appointment can be hard; that is where Avee Health hopes to fill the gap by providing B.C. residents with a “virtual walk-in clinic,” said Avee Health medical director Dr. Howard Koseff.
“We built Avee to solve a simple but critical problem. People can’t get timely access to a doctor, even when providers are available,” Koseff said. “We believe care should be fast, flexible, and accessible. That should be the standard.”
Patients can go to avee.health to book an appointment. The platform matches patients with available licensed physicians, and patients can see which doctors are available and which languages they speak.
The doctor will then call the patient at the appointment time. The physicians can diagnose a number of common conditions, such as allergies, UTIs, acne, skin conditions, and cold and flu symptoms. Any prescriptions for medications will be forwarded to the patient’s pharmacy of choice for pickup.
If a doctor decides a patient needs to be seen in person in the Lower Mainland, they can visit the Avee Clinic (106-19475 Fraser Hwy.) in Surrey, although those appointments are not always available on the same day. The Surrey clinic is currently the only one they have in the province.
Coquitlam resident Alfadzrin “Israel” Banada said it took two years to get a family doctor.
“So when I discovered Avee Health, I was very lucky, and it was a life-changing experience,” he said. Instead of waiting hours in clinics or the emergency room, he can schedule a quick consultation at a time that works for him that day.
“Even now I have a family doctor, I still go with Avee online, because sometimes booking with my family doctor also takes time,” he said.
Avee Health works with patients’ and doctors’ schedules to find a time that works for both.
Dr. Judy Dercksen works out of her home in Parksville and said that while the platform does not replace family doctors, it is filling a necessary gap for patients by allowing them to book same-day appointments and get near-immediate access to health-care providers.
“This is a win-win for the health-care system,” she says. “Patients don’t have to wait hours at a walk-in clinic or in an emergency room for non-urgent care—they have somewhere to turn.”
It particularly fills a need in rural areas in the province where immediate access to primary health care is lacking.
There are no costs to British Columbians, as it is covered under the Medical Services Plan (MSP). It costs $49 for private patients.
The company was launched in Vancouver in 2020 by immigrants who had struggled to find a family doctor and saw this was an issue that was impacting many around them, so they “established Avee to help that process,” Koseff said.
“In 2025 alone, the B.C.-based company facilitated more than 200,000 patient visits, using an on-demand model that allows doctors to see patients during gaps in their schedules. It also comes at no cost to the patient because the virtual visit is covered under BC’s Medical Services Plan,” noted an Avee Health press release.
Surrey has the highest number of platform users in the province.
“A big part of it is that there’s a shortage of family physicians, especially in Surrey and throughout the province. We have somewhere in the region of between 500,000 and 750,000 people who do not have family doctors. So there is a need, and especially in Surrey, there’s a need because there are few available walk-in clinics and emergency rooms are busy,” Koseff said.
The 2025 OurCare report surveyed 17,000 people across Canada and found that 84. 3 per cent of British Columbians have a family doctor or nurse practitioner.
While the report’s results show progress, more work remains.