This demonstrates
mandatory travel for
over 500 patients daily.
An appropriate building would house 200 patients with space for mandatory caregivers and support persons/family.
Data was collected through respective FOIs; Ministry of Health has been asked to provide overall data.
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Data was broken down by Community Health Service Area and only those traveling from outside of the Lower Mainland (including Hope and Squamish) were included.
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Bowen Island/Lions Bay was removed as they are grouped together; even though residents of Bowen Island must take a ferry to access care, those living in Lions Bay do not.
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Indigenous Services Canada Non-Insured Health Benefits Program (NIHB): Supported 460 eligible clients last year with travel to Vancouver for care. All other Yukon citizens traveling for care are receiving support through insured health benefits.
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Vancouver offers inpatient, outpatient, and tertiary care for British Columbians and those traveling from the Yukon: clinics, emergency services, surgery, transplants, labs, tech services, assessments, follow-ups, and more. ​Vancouver is a regional center within VCH, serving communities: Sea to Sky, Sunshine Coast, Powell River, Bella Bella, and Bella Coola. ​Vancouver is also a hub for provincial medical care, for patients referred to by other health authorities. ​VCH provides 46 per cent of all inpatient specialized care for the entire province and works in partnership with Providence Health Care to deliver care in Vancouver.
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Because data regarding out-patient care is unavailable at this time, there is no way of knowing exactly how many patients receive services in Vancouver every day. We can clearly see it is hundreds. Out-patient visits may clarify accommodation needs for patients, whereas in-patient discharges and the length of those stays may indicate the need for caregiver accommodation. When programs and treatment processes require patients to stay close to the hospital for multiple months, this can also be an unknown in terms of the accommodation demand. Transplants are special in that they indicate a mandatory 3-month relocation to Vancouver. Transplant statistics are also well recorded however this is not the case with other cohorts. ​​​We can look at things like:
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Ronald McDonald House Vancouver has 73 rooms, always full, for BC Children's Hospital (231 beds). 73 of 231 is 32%. 32% of 2346 - which is the combination of beds used in the hospitals listed in the above data - is 751 beds. Keep in mind Ronald McDonald House is adding another 75-room facility.
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Bella Bella: Between April and August 2024, the FNHA travel assistance spending was $1.2 million just for Bella Bella (in the summer, a population fo 2400 and a hospital trauma room of 7 beds).
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TAP: Just shy of 100,000 patients used a TAP form in 2024 * TAP form is not redeemable for accommodation and is pan-provincial, however it is a data point "glimpse" into how many people are traveling for medical care, via airplanes and ferries.
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JoeAnna's House in Kelowna, BC is a facility just for caregivers accompanying patients traveling for regional care. Their 20 rooms are always full and they are expanding.
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Transplant Cohort
Transplants: 173 transplant patients traveled in 2024 to receive life-saving care; each was required to reside in Vancouver for 2-3 months with a mandatory caregiver. The traveling caregiver requires housing while the patient undergoes surgery and is in the ICU. Pre- and post-transplant appointments also take place in Vancouver including assessments before joining the waitlist. (This assessment involves financial questions regarding your ability to “afford” your transplant relocation.) 2,275 patients residing outside of the Lower Mainland are actively being cared for by the transplant team; each is required to attend a mandatory annual check-up in Vancouver.
​​​​​​​The organ transplant subset is a prime example of the need for healthcare housing. All BC transplants are performed in Vancouver and require 6-week to 3-month residencies. Vancouver is Canada's most expensive city and patients are generally left to their own devices to secure the needed housing. Many cannot. The average out-of-pocket cost for a transplant recipient required to relocate is $18,500.
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For the above transplant estimate of 32 rooms needed per day, the total number of transplants in 2024 (481) was first broken down by health authority and those within VCH and Fraser Health Authority, removed. This gave us understanding of those patients traveling for care. Then, we isolated the kidney transplants by percent (63% of 2024 transplants were kidney transplants) which was 108. 108 x 60 days (as kidney transplants require minimum 2-month relocation) = 6,480. The remaining 53 transplants were a mix of lung, heart, liver, and pancreas; 53 x 90 days (as all other transplants require minimum 3-month relocation) = 4,770. Totaling 11,250 nights, divided by 365 = 31.8 or 32 nights per day. ​
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This does not include those traveling for pre or post-transplant care.
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In 2024, there were 90 living kidney donors. Through the Kidney Foundation and the Living Organ Donation Expense Reimbursement Program (LODERP), those traveling to donate can receive funding for hotel stays averaging 5-10 days.
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32 - (7, kidney suites + 2, Heart Transplant Home Society suites + 1, Happy Liver Society suite = 10) = 22 rooms still needed just for mandatory relocation period after surgery.
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A look at a transplant caregiver’s needs (100% of transplants occur in Vancouver): Caregiver is in Vancouver for 1-3 weeks while the transplant patient is in the ICU. At this time, the caregiver is usually staying at a hotel while looking for longer-term housing to host the patient for the mandatory 3-month recovery period required by the transplant program. 37% of transplant recipients are traveling from outside of the Lower Mainland; 481 transplants were performed last year –178 patients and their caregivers were relocated to Vancouver and looking for housing.
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Pediatric
Ronald McDonald House Stats -->
Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction
DEMAND ANALYSIS
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION RESPONSES
Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH): VCH FOI File 2025-F-257
167 in-patients per day in Vancouver from outside the Lower Mainland: 5,347 discharges in 24/25 from outside the Lower Mainland x 11.4 (length of stay) = 167/day.
6 day surgeries per day in Vancouver from outside the Lower Mainland: 2031 day surgeries per year from outside the Lower Mainland; divided by 365 = 6 – not taking into account accommodation needs/length of stay surrounding the surgery.
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21 ER visits per day in Vancouver from outside the Lower Mainland.
Out-patient FOI request response: “After consulting with our program area, we were advised that there are no records that are responsive to your request as the information sought is not tracked in a way where it can be provided in a timely matter. The amount of manual work required to pull the information is extremely high and would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the program area. The information provided to us by the program area was that the clinic visits in our data are registered to the main clinic location and not the physical location where the appointments took place. There are number of programs that run clinics in rural locations across the province however those visits are registered to Vancouver. As the location of the appointment is not tracked, for that information to be retrieved the program area would need to work with each clinic’s manager to determine if they run clinics outside of Vancouver and if the data could be separated out or not. This would result in a significant amount of work as there are almost 200 different clinics within Vancouver Coastal Health. For this reason, we are unable to provide access under section 6(2) of FIPPA.”
Providence Health Care:
46 in-patients per day in Vancouver from outside the Lower Mainland: 16,940 in-patient days (each community health service area (CHSA) number of patients x the CHSA’s average length of stay) in 2024 divided by 365 = 46.
1+ day surgeries per day in Vancouver from outside the Lower Mainland: 434 day-surgeries in 2024; not considering accommodation needs/length of stay surrounding the surgery.
8 ER visits per day
Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA): F25-2211
BC Women’s Hospital (BCWH):
16 in-patients per day in Vancouver from outside the Lower Mainland: 1549 inpatient encounters x 10.25 length of stay = 5628.3 divided by 365 = 16 (rounded up).
<1 day surgeries per day in Vancouver from outside the Lower Mainland
16 out-patients per day in Vancouver from outside the Lower Mainland
ER visits unknown
BC Children’s Hospital (BCCH):
Average length of stay (los): 8 days
36 in-patients per day in Vancouver from outside the Lower Mainland: encounters x los (8) → 12,980.6 divided by 365 = 36 days.
3 day surgeries per day in Vancouver from outside the Lower Mainland.
80 out-patients per day in Vancouver from outside the Lower Mainland.
Yukon correspondence:
50 cases per day: Yukon Medical Travel Program
1327 cases with escort, out of 2592 cases total, with start dates in 24/25 (41%). Average length of stay: 3 days. Accommodation is booked by individual.
Indigenous Services Canada Non-Insured Health Benefits Program (NIHB):
460 eligible clients last year supported with travel to Vancouver for care. All other Yukon citizens traveling for care are receiving support through insured health benefits, Federal Government Employees (Parks Canada, RCMP, etc) fall under the Federal medical travel, and travel as a result of a workplace injury goes through Workers Compensation.
Patient Care Quality Office (VCH): VCH FOI 2025-F-272
There were 17 instances where reimbursements (and amount spent) were issued to traveling patients whose appointments were canceled between January 1, 2023 and May 13, 2025. The total amount of reimbursements paid out is $26,989.65.
Ministry of Health: awaiting data HTH-2025-51682
Island Health: awaiting data File No. FOI25947