There are many benefits to centralizing healthcare in Vancouver.
There are also benefits to providing housing for patients in Vancouver. ​
​
​
Purpose-Built Patient Housing:
Benefit to Patient and the System
Justification and Benefit to the
City of Vancouver
Plea to the City to Take Responsibility and Grant Space
Access to Care
​Accessing healthcare is a human right and many documents, especially within Canada, support the right to equitable access of care. When you think about distributing organs fairly, for example, which is a wonderful gift and British Columbians are strongly encouraged to be donors, we must make sure there are no barriers distinguishing who can receive them - there should not be a cost for some and not others. There are countless examples of unfair access to care simply because someone does not live within the Lower Mainland. By creating accommodation for those coming in for care, you immediately diminish this unfair barrier drastically.
​
50,000+ market rate hotel rooms are booked every year for (or by) traveling patients through a variety of programs. Hotels are expensive for individuals, and they are expensive for the government. There are no contracts protecting space or medical rates from fluctuating with the current hotels. By operating your own facility or agreeing to a long-term lease with a new hotel, you can utilize your buying power upfront and secure more affordable rates. This would create a cost saving to the system and remove the reliance on market rate hotel rooms or shopping "off the rack." The booking process would be much more straightforward.
​
Besides saving money by booking at your own facility, purpose-built housing allows for a space conducive to healing which also benefits the system. Healthy patients are cheaper patients! A space that brings patients together, who are fighting a similar fight, can also improve mood, outlook, anxiety, and present encouragement.
​
Patients are not tourists; designing appropriate space for recovering patients does not have to be intricate. It can be as simple as training staff with protocols so that, for example, patients going through chemotherapy are treated with kindness and not charged extra for a dirty bathroom after a night of excessive vomiting.
​​
Cultural safety can be properly addressed within patient housing by educating and training staff, utilizing resources such as the San’yas ​​Indigenous Cultural Safety Online Training Program. A study on other indigenous housing models and spaces can be performed, including the Lu’ma Native Housing Society, local welcome centers, and the new Centre for Health Complexity at the BC Children’s Hospital featuring an All Nations space consulted on by the BC Women’s Hospital Indigenous Health Team. An Inclusivity Committee would be formed to build a mindset for the project that does not leave out key features important to a variety of patient demographics such as the accessibility needs of a person with disabilities and will allow us as a province to continue down our path of reconciliation and anti-racism within the healthcare system.
​
​Due to potential emergency needs of patients, it is critical that accommodation be in close proximity to the hospital. This is why mandates such as those associated with transplant recipients instruct the patient to find housing close to the hospital. Additionally, patients arriving in an emergency fashion may be accompanied by a caregiver, family member or support person who will have to find housing quickly, as this may occur in the middle of the night for example. Caregivers, family members and support persons generally want to spend as much time as possible at the hospital, especially when the patient is the most vulnerable, often coinciding with relocation for medical care. Having close respite for those going back and forth to the hospital is important.
​
The stress of finding somewhere to stay and figuring out how you will afford it compounds the health situation of a sick or recovering patient. This leads to an individual deciding if they should travel to Vancouver for care at all. This can have severe healthcare consequences to the patient and lead to a toll on the healthcare system in different forms.
​
​
Proactive healthcare is more affordable than reactive healthcare and by creating accommodation for patients needing to travel, the provincial government is enabling British Columbians to access care they may not otherwise be able to afford - care that will help everyone in the long run.​
​
​Addressing issues that need specialized care in Vancouver relieves community hospitals and small ER rooms from bandaid visits or premature, expensive end-of-life care.
​
Healthy people can return to work; pay taxes; contribute to their community; take care of their family; enjoy life and better the economy.
​
It is obvious the downside foregoing treatment poses to the patient. But it also burdens the healthcare system when end of life and palliative care is now being treated in community hospitals that already have limited abilities, in addition to a premature timeline. The cost of a rural hospital bed does not compare to the cost of putting patients in accommodation in Vancouver at the correct time.
Cost Savings: Guaranteed Space, Unfluctuating Rates
Proactive Care is Better than Reactive Care
Appropriate Space
Less Stress
Cultural Safety
Proximity to Hospital
Conducive to Healing
Forgoing Treatment
Ex: Wheelchair Fittings
A specific example of getting the care you need in a proactive way would be wheelchair fittings offered via G.F. Strong's Complex Seating and Mobility Services. By having a properly fitted wheelchair, one experiences less ER visits in their community due to pressure ulcers. This service is only offered in a few places around the province and travel to access this fitting is at the patient's expense, therefore often missed out on, yet the healthcare system would see huge cost savings by ensuring people have well-fitted wheelchairs if comparing the small cost of accommodation to the cost of reoccurring ER and hospital visits.
​
Another example is the Driver Rehabilitation Program offered at GF strong which enables a person with disabilities to drive on their own. This can lead to employment and overall betters the individual's life and the fruitfulness of their community. An individual does have to pay to access this care by way of travel and accessible accommodation. ​
Accute to Community
An available bed vs. the cost of a hospital bed: having convenient and appropriate patient housing for those who no longer need to be in hospital would be a huge relief to the medical system.
What is the Value?
Must we ask the question, what is the value of a person with disabilities re-entering their community with pride and abilities?
Must we put a value on a mother being able to take her child for autism assessments and have somewhere to stay? Oftentimes taking time off work, uprooting the entire family and other children to make this healthcare possible for her child in need?
Must we ask if it is appropriate for a healthcare worker to ask a British Columbian if they “can afford a transplant” based on their bank account and whether they have $20,000 saved, expected to provide bank statements?
Must we accept a suggestion from a social worker to “get divorced” so our annual household income is low enough to qualify for accommodation support through the MSDPR?
​
Mixed use creative financial models have been encouraged and mandated by the City of Vancouver on new builds as they benefit the community and weave important elements into growth. Although it is argued that patient housing does not benefit locals, as it would be built for those traveling to Vancouver, it is easy to see the obligation a city may have to uphold when benefiting from hospitals and healthcare "in their backyard" in addition to the economic benefits of hospitality surrounding the thousands of British Columbians traveling into your city to access care. Could Community Amenity Contributions (CACs, now called ACCs) consider patient housing as part of this category?
​
The City of Vancouver currently has a hotel shortage; by giving patients an adequate place to stay while visiting for medical purposes, hotel space would open up for true tourists.
​
Holding events in the City of Vancouver such as FIFA World Cup (2026), Taylor Swift, Beyonce, etc. jeopardizes the already limited space in Vancouver hotels of which patients are relying on. I believe the City has a responsibility they have to identify here.
​
Furthermore, the City stripped patients of Airbnb options to deter individuals from using local real estate as an income opportunity relating to rentals for out-of-towners. Patients must now rely strictly on hotels because of the regulations put in place regarding short-term rentals.
​
Does the City of Vancouver have a responsibility to work with initiatives interested in making more housing available to patients coming into their city?
​​
Patient housing in Vancouver would benefit every community in British Columbia as everyone knows someone who has had to travel to Vancouver to access medical care. When our rural communities are strong, BC is strong; this is a step toward a StrongerBC.
​
Community Amenity
City Benefit
FIFA + City Obligation
Community Benefit
Feedback Loop
and Equity Cohort
A longitudinal patient cohort to study health outcomes, system navigation, and equity impacts of relocation for healthcare.
Furthermore, patients under the same roof would present an opportunity to greater study the needs of British Columbians. An in-depth dataset does not currently exist around rural patients coming into Vancouver which limits the ability to improve and enhance rural patient medical journeys and system efficiencies. Scroll down for details on a research feedback loop.
​
​
