Royal Columbian Hospital Expansion

Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) provides the highest level of 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 newly expanded Clinical Academic Campus. 

Expansion urgently needed

RCH has significant physical structure and resource challenges. 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 mitigate these challenges Fraser Health is now planning for a two phase expansion of RCH:

Phase 1

The first phase of the project includes consideration for construction of a new eight story tower. The tower would house a new emergency department and a combined surgical/interventional suite, as well as be capable of housing up to 60 beds per floor. Phase 1 will include a major renovation of the Health Care Centre, resulting in approximately 292 additional patient beds at RCH.

In addition, Phase 1 of the redevelopment project will include the demolition of the Sherbrooke Centre, the construction of a new main entrance for RCH, and creation of additional underground parking.

Phase 2

The second phase involves the planning and construction of an ambulatory care facility similar in scope and size to the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre (JPOCSC). The site for this facility could be on the former Labatt brewery site adjacent to RCH.

Benefits and Services

The expansion of Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) is urgently needed to address the growing service capacity needs in the Fraser North region 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.

Phase 1 of this project will ease congestion, enhance the working environment for physicians, and provides the RCH community with a significant increase in health care capacity.