How to Register with the Health Connect Registry (Step-by-Step)

The Health Connect Registry is British Columbia's official waitlist for a family doctor or nurse practitioner. If you live in BC and don't have a primary care provider, registering is the single most important administrative step you can take — it's how the province's attachment coordinators know you exist, and it's the channel through which most new patient spots are filled.

The good news: registration is genuinely simple. It's free, it takes less than five minutes, and this guide walks through every step, verified against HealthLink BC's current process as of July 2026.

Before you start: who should register

Anyone who lives in BC and needs a family doctor or nurse practitioner can register. That includes registering yourself, your family members (children included), or someone in your care — HealthLink BC explicitly allows caregivers, health care providers and social workers to register on another person's behalf.

If you already have a family doctor or nurse practitioner, you don't need to register. And if you were on a waitlist at a local clinic in the past, note that clinic waitlists across BC have been transitioned into the Health Connect Registry — you can register again, and your original clinic waitlist date carries over, so you don't lose seniority.

New to the province? You'll want your MSP enrolment sorted first, since registration requires a Personal Health Number. Our guide to how MSP coverage works covers that process.

What you'll need

Gather three things before you begin. First, your Personal Health Number (PHN) — the 10-digit number on the back of your BC Services Card, or on your BC driver's licence if it's combined with your services card. Second, your home address. Third, your contact information: an email address and a phone number.

That's the complete list. There's no fee, no documents to upload, and no appointment needed.

Step 1: Go to the registration portal (or call 811)

The online registration form lives at hcr.healthlinkbc.ca — you can also reach it through the Health Connect Registry page on healthlinkbc.ca under "Find care." It works fine on a phone.

Prefer to register by phone, or need another language? Call 811 any time — the line runs 24/7. You'll reach an English-speaking health service navigator; to use another language, simply say its name (for example, "Punjabi" or "Cantonese") and an interpreter joins the call. Translation is available in over 130 languages. Deaf and hard-of-hearing callers can dial 711 (TTY), and Video Relay Service users can call 604-215-5101.

Step 2: Enter your details

The form asks for your PHN, home address, email and phone number. Enter them carefully — your address determines which community's attachment team receives your registration, and your contact details are how they'll reach you when a match comes up. A typo here can genuinely cost you a match.

If you're registering family members, you can include them in the same process. Each person needs their own PHN.

Step 3: Answer the health questions (optional, but do it)

Near the end, you'll be given the option to share information about your health — new diagnoses, ongoing conditions, recent changes. This step is optional, but we strongly recommend completing it honestly.

Here's why: the registry is not a purely first-come, first-served line. Attachment coordinators prioritize people whose health needs are most pressing, and the health questions are how they know. Understating your situation could leave you waiting longer than you should; there's no benefit to overstating it either, since the intake process involves actually meeting a provider. Just be accurate. (For the full picture of how prioritization and matching work, see our guide to how BC family doctor waitlists actually work.)

Submit, and you're done. There's no confirmation appointment or follow-up requirement — you're on the registry.

What happens after you register

Your registration goes to the attachment coordination team for your community. From there, HealthLink BC describes the process like this:

The team reviews your registration details. They may contact you by phone or email — sometimes for more information, sometimes with updates, sometimes to point you toward health services available while you wait. This kind of interim contact is normal and doesn't mean a match is imminent.

When a family doctor or nurse practitioner in your area becomes available, the team contacts you to complete an intake process. This usually includes a first appointment with the provider so you can meet each other. If you both agree it's a fit, you become "attached" — that provider is now your long-term primary care provider. If the match doesn't work out, you stay on the registry with your place intact, and the team looks for another match.

Be aware that the province does not estimate how long matching will take, and waits vary a lot by region and health need. In the Vancouver Coastal Health region, the median wait was about 171 days as of spring 2026 — the shortest in BC, but still months. Expect silence for a while, and don't interpret it as a problem. While you wait, there's a lot you can do to stay covered: see what to do while you wait for a family doctor, and keep an eye on Vancouver doctors currently accepting new patients — finding a provider yourself doesn't conflict with being registered.

Keeping your registration up to date

This part matters more than most people realize. Coordinators match based on your registered address, contact details and health information — if any of those go stale, matches can misfire or miss you entirely.

You can update your registration anytime online at hcr.healthlinkbc.ca (there's a dedicated patient updates form) or by calling 811. As of 2026, the online form handles: contact details (email or phone), home address, changes to your health symptoms and care needs, and letting the registry know you're no longer looking for a provider. One current limitation: adding or removing family members can't be done online — call 811 for that.

Good triggers for an update: you move (even within Vancouver — neighbourhood can affect matching), you change phone numbers or email, you receive a new diagnosis or your condition changes meaningfully, or you find a provider on your own and want to withdraw.

Emails from the registry — and how to spot fakes

Once registered, you'll periodically receive emails from healthconnectregistrydonotreply@hlth.gov.bc.ca. These are legitimate: they contain links to secure update forms and information about health services in your community. The secure forms live only on hcr.healthlinkbc.ca or healthbc.mysite.com web pages — check the address bar before entering anything.

The registry will never ask for payment, banking details or your SIN. If you receive a message that claims to be from the registry and anything feels off, don't click — call 811 and ask. HealthLink BC explicitly invites those verification calls, including concerns about scams and phishing.

Quick reference

To recap the whole process: register free in under five minutes at hcr.healthlinkbc.ca or by calling 811, using your PHN, address and contact details. Answer the optional health questions accurately. Afterward, your community's attachment team handles matching — they'll contact you, possibly months later, to arrange an intake appointment with an available doctor or nurse practitioner. Keep your details current online or via 811, use 811 for adding or removing family members, and treat the waiting period as time to line up interim care and keep your own search going through our family medicine listings and neighbourhood pages.

Five minutes of paperwork, then patience plus parallel effort. That's the whole system.

This guide is general navigation information, not medical advice. For health questions call 811 (HealthLink BC); in an emergency call 911.