The current reforms of the United Kingdom's primary healthcare sector intend to improve accessibility to health care. One of the proposals is to introduce "walk-in" primary care centres. The intention is to pilot "a series of nurse led centres which can be used on a `drop in' basis, providing minor treatment, health information and self help advice."
The Canadian medical system has many similarities to the British system. Canada's health system is funded through general taxation (and Medicare premiums), and its general practitioners (family physicians) have a gatekeeper role to secondary care in most provinces. Canada has had walk-in centres for over 20 years. However, these centres are a doctor led service. The lessons learnt in Canada about walk-in centres may be relevant to the NHS. In this article I review the available literature about Canadian walk-in centres
