Patients Travelling From Urban Geographies To Rural Hospitals For Procedural Care: A Realist Consideration

Centre for Rural Health Research – Patients Travelling From Urban Geographies To Rural Hospitals For Procedural Care: A Realist Consideration

Centralization has been shown to have deleterious consequences for many rural patients and to contribute to population health disadvantage among rural Canadians.

Meanwhile, increasing distance to basic care has been shown to have dramatic negative consequences for the health outcomes in BC.

This review explores the question of willingness to travel through a rural lens, reversing the usual scenario of rural patient travel to urban centres. Start- ing with an understanding of the best available literature positions us well as we embark on the natural experiment that is occurring in British Columbia.