A Study of Disparities in Access to Trauma Care Across Canada
- Oct 9, 2025
- 2 min read
A recent study examined how quickly Canadians can reach advanced trauma care after serious injuries, revealing significant gaps. Using 2021 census data and mapping tools, this group found that while about 76% of Canadians live within a one-hour drive of a Level 1 or 2 trauma centre, nearly a quarter (over 7.5 million people) do not. Even with helicopter transport, almost 10% remain outside this critical window. Those living beyond the one-hour range are more likely to be unemployed, have lower education, lower household income, and be of Indigenous origin.
For British Columbia (BC) specifically, the study found that 69% of residents are within a one-hour drive of a major trauma centre, but over 20% - more than 880,000 people - are not. With helicopter access, coverage improves to 89%, yet about 460,000 British Columbians remain underserved. However, it isn't transport alone which is important; it is the level and quality of critical care that can be provided by the responding team. This is especially concerning given BC’s large rural and remote regions. Indigenous communities in BC are disproportionately affected, facing higher risks of injury and poorer outcomes.
This study, once again, highlights that simply having universal healthcare does not guarantee equal access to life-saving trauma care. For anyone who has worked rurally or in any northern community, this will come as no surprise.
The authors call for targeted solutions: better integration of rural hospitals with trauma centres, expanded air transport, rural provider training, telemedicine, and more broadly, addressing social factors like poverty and housing. For BC, these findings underscore the urgent need to improve trauma and critical care access in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities to reduce preventable deaths due to well-established health inequities. MRBC aims to address the existing system gaps by bringing interprofessional tertiary-level critical care to these areas of BC, utilizing winch-equipped helicopters, airplanes, boats and rapid response vehicles, whatever is required to get care to patients in need.
Dr Jonathan Gravel is an emergency physician and trauma team leader on Vancouver Island with interests in pre-hospital and mass gathering medicine. He is a regular blog contributor at Med Response BC.
