Accessibility & access

The City of Vancouver website has information on accessible parking. On the Accessible parking page, you can find accessible parking spaces near our sites in Vancouver. You can also learn about parking exemptions for people with disabilities and how to get a special parking permit. 
 

Please visit one of the links below to learn about help with travel, accessible entrances, mobility assistance, service animal policies and other accessibility information and services at each of our sites:

• St. Paul's Hospital 
• Mount Saint Joseph Hospital 
• Holy Family Hospital 
• Youville Residence
• St. Vincent's: Langara
• St. Vincent's: Honoria Conway-Heather
• St. Vincent's: Brock Fahrni 
• St. John Hospice 
• May's Place Hospice 
• Providence Crosstown Clinic 
• Community Dialysis Units

You can get a BC bus pass if you are a low-income senior or receiving disability assistance. The bus pass lets you travel for free anywhere in BC, using:

• BC Transit
• TransLink

Learn more about the BC Bus Pass program, including how to apply.

BC Ferries is part of the Travel Assistance Program (TAP). TAP helps BC residents get to medical appointments (see below). BC Ferries customers using TAP can book a complimentary (free) reservation online. which helps BC residents get to medical appointments (see below). BC Ferries customers using TAP can book a complimentary reservation online.

BC Ferries also has its own program called Medical Assured Loading (MAL). It’s for people who can’t wait for long at the ferry terminal for health reasons.

Many First Nations peoples live in rural or remote areas. This can make it difficult to access medical care. The Medical Transportation Benefit helps cover costs when you are travelling to a medical appointment outside your community. It helps pay for meals, accommodations and transportation.

Learn more about the benefit.

The fuel tax refund program for persons with disabilities can help reduce your transportation costs. If you're eligible, you may receive both of the following:

• A fuel tax refund of up to $500 each calendar year for a qualifying vehicle registered in the program
• A 25% discount off your ICBC basic Autoplan insurance (including electric vehicles)

Learn more about the fuel tax rebate, including who is eligible and how to apply.

HandyDART is a TransLink service for people who need help to use public transit. A HandyDART bus picks you up at your home and takes you where you need to go.

Learn more about HandyDART and how to register and pay for it.

Health Connections is a regional travel assistance program run by health authorities. The program provides lower-cost transportation options for rural residents. It helps cover costs when people need to travel outside their home communities for non-emergency, doctor-referred medical care. 

It is separate from, but works with, the Travel Assistance Program (see below).

Learn more about Health Connections

Hope Air is a Canadian charity that helps people get the care they need. Hope Air provides free flights, accommodations (places to stay), and other travel assistance.

Learn more about Hope Air, their services and how to apply

You may need to travel outside your community for a specialist non-emergency medical service. TAP helps cover expenses when traveling elsewhere in BC for medical treatment. TAP is run by the Government of British Columbia.

For more information about who is eligible and how to apply, visit:

Travel Assistance (TAP) website

It is important that you understand your care team, test results and treatment. At Providence Health Care, we offer free language interpretation services to help you communicate with your care team. Interpretation services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through the Provincial Language Services (PLS). 

PLS provides Interpreting services in more than 200 languages, from American Sign Language to Zyphe. Patients or family members can ask a care team member to request an interpreter.

For more information about interpreting and other language services, visit Language Services.

If you are deaf, deaf-blind or hard of hearing you have a legal right to access sign language interpreters, intervenors and CART services. These services are available at virtual and in-person medical appointments. Please ask your health care team to request a particular service:

• Sign language interpreting: Free sign language and deaf interpreter services are available 24 hours a day, 7days a week.
• Intervenors: Intervenors are not interpreters. They help deaf-blind patients get to and from health care procedures and appointments within the health care system. They also help patients communicate with other people in the health care setting.
• Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART): CART translates voice to text in real-time during an appointment. It is for hard of hearing patients who do not use sign language to communicate.

For more information about all of these services, visit the PHSA website.

Rendez-vous sur le site des Services francophones du PLS pour des ressources disponibles pour la population francophone et les personnes qui travaillent avec eux.

Visit the PLS Francophone Services for resources available in French to the Francophone population and the people who work with them.

PHC has a team of Indigenous Wellness Liaisons. This team support patients who identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Métis or Inuit). The team members are Indigenous themselves. They offer cultural, spiritual, and emotional support.

Peer support workers offer emotional support to Indigenous patients and their family members. They can also advocate for patients. The workers have personal experience with challenges that Indigenous patients might face. These could include racism, trauma, substance use, and/or physical or mental health issues. The Indigenous Wellness Liaisons can connect Indigenous patients with Peer Support Workers.

Learn more

Virtual care is the name for how we connect patients to services and deliver care remotely. A virtual care visit means you don’t have to visit a hospital or other Providence location in person.

We provide the following interpretation services for virtual care visits:

• Telephone interpretation
• Remote interpretation over Zoom (the platform we use for video calls between patients and Providence staff)
• American Sign Language interpretation (while remote interpretation is available, we recommend in-person if possible)
• British Sign Language interpretation
• Audio or video interpretation on mobile devices

To help you decide which option is best for you, download our Virtual Interpretation User Guide.

Learn more about Virtual Care at Providence or contact our Virtual Care team at virtualvisits@providencehealth.bc.ca

The Government of BC’s Medical Travel Accommodation Listing program helps BC residents who need out-of-town medical services for themselves and family members find discounted accommodation.

Visit the Medical Travel Accommodation Listing to search for accommodation near the location of your medical appointment. When you book a room, request the medical rate.

Service animals are welcome at Providence sites. Please contact the specific site for service animal policies at specific locations, especially long-term care and residential sites. The links to each site are at the top of this page.

The new St Paul’s Hospital and health campus will be located in Vancouver’s False Creek Flats area on Station Street. The new location is 3 kilometres from the current hospital site on Burrard Street.

Check out the design of the new hospital, including accessibility features, and keep up to date with developments and news.