Charlottetown — A private company on Prince Edward Island is promoting rapid, for‑pay access to medical care for international visitors and some Canadians, including same‑day appointments and door‑to‑door house calls, a service model that has raised alarms among advocates of universal public health care.
What the service offers
The business, operating the website PEIdoctor.com and run by EndWell Management Inc., markets non‑emergency physician consultations for visitors and some Canadians outside regular clinic hours. The service advertises options that include virtual consultations, in‑person same‑day appointments and weekend or evening visits to hotels, cottages or Airbnbs.
- Virtual consultation: advertised at about $229.
- House calls: advertised from $900 or more.
- Same‑day, evening and weekend bookings: promoted for international visitors and Quebec residents, and in some cases Canadians.
The company says the service is intended to make the Island more attractive to longer‑stay visitors, including retirees who may spend extended periods on P.E.I.
"We believe more visitors will come and longer‑stay visitors will come and people who, for instance, are in their retirement age may come for longer stays,"
said Marius Croeser, chief executive officer of EndWell Management Inc., as quoted on the site.
Local doctors involved
Two physicians are listed on PEIdoctor.com. One of them, Dr. Janine Karpakis, is a family doctor who works for Health P.E.I. from a clinic on St. Peters Road in Charlottetown and is named on the site's practitioner list. The website indicates the service will be available to people who are visiting the province and, in some cases, to Canadians willing to pay the fee.
Concerns over public health policy
Public health‑care advocates say the model is troubling because it appears to offer faster access to care for people who can pay — including international visitors — while many Island residents continue to face waits to see family physicians and emergency services.
Critics have also questioned whether offering for‑pay, insured services in a province that operates under Medicare contravenes the principles of the Canada Health Act, which are intended to ensure universal access based on need rather than ability to pay. Those concerns echo debates in other provinces when private clinics offer fees for insured services or faster access.
Advocates argue the arrangement could create a two‑tier service on the Island, privileging tourists and fee‑paying patients for timely appointments that are not equally available to local residents.
Practical implications for Islanders
Island residents already report challenges finding timely primary care in some areas of P.E.I. The new private offering highlights a tension between promoting tourism and protecting equal access to publicly funded health services. If the service is used primarily by visitors, it could ease some pressure on walk‑in clinics during peak tourist season; if it draws local clinicians' time away from publicly funded practice, it could have the opposite effect.
At present, the advertised costs and the target markets — international visitors and Quebec residents, with some availability to Canadians — suggest the enterprise is positioning itself as a premium, private alternative rather than a substitute for public services.
| Service | Advertised starting price |
|---|---|
| Virtual consultation | $229 |
| House call (in‑person) | $900 or more |
Next steps and unanswered questions
Key questions remain about how the service will be regulated, whether Health P.E.I. or provincial authorities will review possible conflicts with the Canada Health Act, and how participating physicians will divide their time between publicly funded clinics and private, fee‑for‑service work.
For Islanders, it will be important to watch whether the service expands, who uses it most, and what oversight mechanisms are applied. Any changes to access or provider availability would have direct effects on patients who rely on publicly funded primary care.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available from provincial health officials and the clinic operators.
