Vancouver Coastal Health ends agreement with United Church Health Services

Community members received a mail-out last weekend from the United Church Health Services Society (UCHSS) detailing the termination of their affiliation agreement with Vancouver Coastal Health. The transfer of all programs and services from UCHSS to VCH will be complete by June 2014.

Although VCH’s present agreement with the UCHSS dates back to 2001, the United Church has provided health care on B.C.’s central coast for 124 years. For the first 60 years it was largely funded by the church. In 1889, Dr. Albert Bolton traveled by boat throughout the Central Coast offering medicine and surgeries. He started the first hospital in River’s Inlet, and in 1902 a new seven-bed hospital was built in Bella Bella.

In 1927, the embattled Bella Coola Hospital Board asked the United Church of Canada to take over its operations. Fast-forward to the 1990s, when local hospital boards were fighting to keep local, community control of health. In 2001 the province proposed streamlining administration into ‘super-boards,’ and the denominational facilities, which included the United Church hospitals, managed to retain local, community control with their own hospital boards in affiliation with a health authority.

Caitlin Thompson
Coast Mountain News
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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’.
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