I went early in the morning to avoid the crowds. I left three hours later and it was significantly busier.
I went to get a simple test for a possible exposure to a non-communicable, but dangerous disease. The PPE that was mandated was poor. The masks were the variety that surgeons wear during surgery to protect themselves from bodily fluids. They're great for that. I had a mask that far better conformed to my face, but was told to wear one of these surgical masks. The problem with these masks when it comes to COVID-19 and other pathogens (TB, the flu, a cold, various zoonotic diseases, etc.) that are spread via normal breathing is that they puffed out on the sides so large that a finger could fit between the mask and the wearer's face. Better than no mask, but not a huge amount better than cosmetic for our current pandemic.
After a long, but understandable wait, I saw the doctors and got the test taken and was on my way. No issues here.
Now the stressful part. The disease in question is easily treated with antibiotics, but left untreated could result in lifelong chronic conditions. I called the lab and got various answers (not available, we don't talk to people, we don't talk to your family doctor [who was identified during initial visit], call x, call y, call z, etc.). I called the emergency room. One person said she had not heard of the doctor. I perhaps called the wrong number, maybe Birchmount or General. Nope, called the next day with the same number and someone said that doctor was not in at the moment and she could in fact confirm he did exist. That's okay.
I finally was helped by my family doctor who tried multiple different avenues. She worked very hard through the labyrinthine, byzantine system and wasn't even successful at the beginning. Luckily she was finally able to navigate the system and I got the results.
So much more stress than it needed to be, had to get my doctor involved when I should have been able to deal with it with the emergency doctor, and a cavalcade of various (in)competencies encountered along the way.