Royal Columbian Hospital

Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) provides the specialized care to the most seriously ill and injured patients from the Fraser Health region, across the Lower Mainland and the province. RCH is a provincially-designated trauma, heart and neurosciences centre for the region and a regional referral centre for orthopaedics, high-risk maternity and advanced kidney care. RCH is also a UBC teaching hospital with a recently-expanded Clinical Academic Campus.

Solving Challenges

The care teams at RCH face significant challenges due to its physical structure and the rapid growth in our communities. Physicians and staff are faced with aging infrastructure, cramped operating rooms, a congested emergency department and other daily service pressures resulting from a rapidly growing and aging population.

To resolve these challenges, Fraser Health is planning for a major redevelopment of RCH. This will include consideration for construction of a new multi-story tower, a new larger Emergency Department and modernizations to other clinical services. Major renovations will also be considered to improve the quality of care, such as infection control, in existing units.

Next Steps

A detailed redevelopment plan will be completed in 2013 in order for government to approve the large capital and operating investment needed to advance to procurement and construction.This is a tremendously positive milestone in the long history of RCH that will benefit patients from across Fraser Health, the Lower Mainland and also from across the province. Redevelopment will enable RCH to better fulfill its mandate as a clinical academic campus and as our tertiary provincial centre for cardiac, trauma and neurosciences.

Benefits and Services

The redevelopment of Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) will help address the growing service capacity needs in Fraser Health and to ensure that RCH is able to fulfill its mandate as an academic teaching hospital within a network of hospital sites in the Lower Mainland. Completion of the redevelopment will ease congestion, enhance the working environment for physicians and staff, and provide a significant increase in health care capacity for the communities served by RCH.

Learn more

Royal Columbian Hospital redevelopment moves forward Minister announces 150-day campaign for improvements News Release - June 12, 2012

RCH150.com Interactive website that celebrates the wonderful staff, volunteers, physicians, donors and of course, patients and families who have been a part of the Royal Columbian Hospital legacy.