Urban Health Acute Care Unit

The Urban Health Acute Care Unit at St. Paul’s Hospital is a 24 bed unit that provides acute hospital care for patients with infectious diseases, addiction, HIV/AIDS, and chronic/acute illness associated with marginalization. Previously the unit served as the 10C HIV/AIDS Ward, which operated from 1997 until 2014.

 

Due to the success of the BC-CfE’s Treatment as Prevention® strategy, reducing new HIV diagnoses by approximately 80% from the peak in 1987, there was no longer a need for a dedicated AIDS ward after 2014. The area was refocused and renamed the Urban Health Acute Care Unit and in July of 2020, moved to Unit 8A in St. Paul’s.

 

In addition to treating issues of HIV-related opportunistic infections or adverse reactions to HAART, physicians in the Unit are seeing more frequent injection drug use-related infections, such as cellulitis, endocarditis, osteomyelitis, and complications of chronic liver disease (e.g. hepatitis B and C). About 70% of the patients admitted to the Unit are active or previous injection drug users.

 

The Urban Health Acute Care Unit provides a much-needed multidisciplinary service which is patient-centred, trauma-informed, and includes a progressive harm reduction approach to addictions management. The care team is particularly experienced in the management of infections among marginalized patients who are often underhoused and with few community supports. The unit has built up extensive linkages with other care facilities and support groups in the community.

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During the Canada Post strike announced September 25, 2025, the following measures will be undertaken to minimize service disruption to BC-CfE clients and providers.

  • The BC-CfE Laboratory has transitioned to private courier for delivery of outgoing reports and documents. Results required urgently can be faxed upon request. (Lab Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8775; FAX 604-806-9463)
  • The BC-CfE Drug Treatment Program (DTP) will fax outgoing forms and documents to the provider’s office. (DTP Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8515; FAX 604-806-9044)
  • St. Paul’s Hospital Ambulatory Pharmacy has transitioned to private courier for delivery of medications. We recommend requesting medication at least 2 weeks in advance in case of delivery delays, particularly to rural/remote parts of BC. (Contact Information: Phone 1-800-547-3622; FAX 604-806-8675)

During the Canada Post strike, we recommend that documents be faxed or couriered to our sites, versus utilization of regular mail service

The BC-CfE Laboratory is streamlining reporting processes for certain tests in order to simplify distribution and record-keeping, and to ensure completeness of results. Beginning September 2, 2025, results for the ‘Resistance Analysis of HIV-1 Protease and Reverse Transcriptase’ (Protease-RT) and ‘HIV-1 Integrase Resistance Genotype’ tests will be combined into a single ‘HIV-1 Resistance Genotype Report’.
For more details and example reports, please click on the button below

Laboratory Order Forms

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