Frequently Asked Questions

Elective consultation referral: Your appointment will be scheduled once a complete written referral from a physician has been received and reviewed. To expedite your referral, please ensure that all supporting documents are included with the referral including appropriate blood work, urine tests, diagnostic imaging studies and/or prior relevant clinical notes. Incomplete referrals will be returned to your doctor to request additional clinical information and appointment scheduled once received and reviewed.

Referrals are triaged and scheduled based on nature and severity of the clinical condition. You and your doctor will be notified of the appointment once it has been booked. It is at the discretion of the Urologist whether the consultation request will be accepted based on the clinical condition, their expertise or wait-time.

Emergency Department referral: The Halton Urology office will contact you directly to book an appointment once we have received all the necessary clinical information. You will typically be seen within 1 week or in the next available appointment.

We are doing a combination of both virtual and in-person appointments. Depending on the clinical condition, your appointment will be booked accordingly.

Many of our initial assessments are done by telephone with your Urologist and then your followup appointment, if needed, will be booked in-person either in the office or at the hospital.

Please call the office to reschedule or cancel your upcoming appointment.

Please be mindful of other patients. We ask that you cancel your appointment and rebook as soon as you know that you will be unable to attend.

After your in-person or telephone appointment, if required and discussed, a followup appointment will be scheduled for you by the clinic.

If you have been previously seen and require another appointment, please call the office during business hours.

If you require another appointment for an unrelated urologic condition or if it has been greater than 2 years since your last appointment, you will require a new referral from your doctor as outlined by Ontario Health.

All patients are triaged and appointments booked accordingly as clinically appropriate.

We do not keep a cancellation list and will always book your appointment based on next availability as the Urologist schedule permits.

Your diagnostic imaging test such as bone scan, CT scan, MRI, ultrasound, etc., will be arranged by your Urologist as discussed at your last appointment.

Depending on which hospital your test has been booked at as well as the clinical reason for the test, the hospital will book the test and notify my office. My office will notify you of your diagnostic imaging test at the hospital and your follow-up appointment with your Urologist.

If there is a conflict in the appointment time and date for the diagnostic imaging appointment at the hospital, my office cannot change this appointment for you. The hospital requests that you call them directly to change your appointment

Please notify my office of the changed DI appointment time so that we can also change your office follow-up visit.

If you require bloodwork to be done prior to next appointment, your Urologist will have emailed it to you through the Medeo Health platform or app.

If you misplaced your lab requisition form, please call the office and we will email it to you again. Alternatively, you can pick up from the office or we can send it to your family doctor’s office to pick up.

Your Urologist will always do their best to see you at your scheduled appointment time. If you are early or late, the clinic staff to try to fit you as long as it does not negatively affect other patients who are on time.

If your Urologist is able to accommodate you, they will see you when there is an opportunity or gap in patient appointments. The priority is to see the patients at the time that they are booked. Sometimes, this may mean that you have to come back later in the day.

If your Urologist is unable to fit you in the same day, you will be rescheduled to the next available clinic day.

Your Urologist will endeavour to call you at your schedule appointment time +/- 1 hour. They will be calling from a private or unknown number. Please ensure that you have not set your phone to ignore those calls.

If you miss the call or do not answer, your Urologist may be able to call you back at a later time the same day, if the schedule permits. This is not guaranteed.

If this is not possible, the clinic staff will reschedule your appointment at the next availability.

Please call the office to reschedule if you missed your appointment.

The clinic staff will call you once to reschedule an appointment.

As the doctor is on-call for Halton Healthcare during the day time, they may be contacted directly by another physician to discuss an urgent patient matter. This may require your Urologist go to hospital in the middle of a scheduled clinic to see a patient. This does not happen very often but I ask for your understanding should this happen.

The wait time depends on a number of factors. If you are a new patient waiting for an appointment, the wait time is dependent on the following factors: clinical history as provided by your referring physician and completeness of the referral documents provided by your referring physician. If the Urologist is missing or requesting further information from your doctor, an appointment will not be booked until this has been received and reviewed. This is commonly the cause of the delay between when you are told the referral has been made and when you are scheduled for an appointment.

Urgent urologic issues are seen on average within 1-2 weeks whereas less urgent or non-urgent urological may wait on average 4-6 weeks but can sometimes be longer.

We know that waiting for surgery can be stressful. We will call you with your surgery date and let you know about any tests you may need to do. This can take 2 to 4 weeks. We will call you as soon as we have all of the information.

Both Dr. Cole and Dr. Kwan perform surgeries at the Milton District Hospital and the Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital.

Where your surgery will be booked will be at the discretion of your Urologist and is determined based on the type of surgery or procedure, clinical factors and patient health related issues.

If your Urologist discussed that you will need a cystoscopy (look inside your bladder), the clinic staff will book this for your at the Milton District Hospital. You will then be notified of the scheduled appointment date and time.

You will require cystoscopy paperwork and consent form to bring with you to your appointment. The clinic staff will email this to you through the Medeo health platform or app. Alternatively, you can pick this up from the office.

If your Urologist discussed with you that a prostate biopsy is necessary, an appointment will be scheduled for your at the Milton District Hospital. The clinic staff will notify you of the time and date. You will require the biopsy paperwork including the consent form which will be emailed to you through the Medeo health platform or you can pick it up from the clinic. You will also need your prescription for pre-procedural antibiotics which will be given to you or faxed to your pharmacy.

Unfortunately, we are no longer doing any vasectomies. There are clinics that are offering this service. Please discuss your family planning needs with your family doctor.

When you are scheduled for an appointment, you will be notified either by phone, text or email based on the contact information provided. Please note that this is an automated service. Please confirm the appointment as per the instructions.