Understanding medical repatriation and evacuation

If a traveller becomes ill or gets injured while abroad and needs emergency medical treatment, they might have to cut their trip short. Depending on the severity of their illness or injury, this could leave them trying to figure out how to get back home, either by commercial flight or air ambulance.

Travellers can find relief knowing that travel insurance may include benefits to help bring a traveller home in an emergency where required and can help take care of details as well as eligible expenses. Let’s walk through how to prepare for a medical emergency, the difference between medical repatriation and evacuation, and how travel insurance may help you navigate emergencies. 

Before you leave for your trip, part of your planning should include memorizing the emergency contact numbers for your destination and saving it in your phone contact list. The Government of Canada includes emergency contacts on its travel advisory pages for each country.  Keep in mind that in some countries, such as Japan, the emergency number for police services is different from the number for fire and medical services.

Language barriers can be a challenge to navigate while speaking to emergency dispatchers. Many operating services utilize live translation or employ bilingual operators. However, it is very useful to at least learn how to state your location and the nature of the emergency by saying “fire, medical, or police.” Brush up on these language skills before you leave for your trip.

You should also create an extensive paper list of emergency contact numbers to keep on you at all times and have those numbers saved in your phone. The list should include local emergency service providers, embassy or consulate contact details and phone numbers for your primary emergency contact at home. 

Consider purchasing travel insurance as soon as you book your trip. You should know that your provincial or territorial health insurance plan may not fully cover you if you experience a medical emergency outside of your home province. Travel insurance by Allianz Global Assistance with emergency medical benefits may help fill protection gaps. 

Most travel insurance providers also offer 24/7 assistance which can be a major lifeline during a medical emergency. For example, your travel insurance operator may assist with contacting family members.

Our Emergency Assistance Specialists will strive to facilitate payment on your behalf whenever possible and will provide essential information and guidance on the subsequent steps related to your claim.

In the case of a life-threatening medical emergency, go to a hospital immediately and have a family member or friend reach out to Allianz Global Assistance on your behalf within 24 hours of admission and before any surgery takes place.

Allianz Global Assistance can be contacted through the following:

Please be aware that international operator assistance may be needed for collect calls, so confirm how to call collect to Canada from your location before travelling.

Emergency service providers will send either an air or mobile ambulance. If you are stranded in a remote or hard-to-reach area, an air ambulance may be dispatched. Emergency evacuation by air can be incredibly costly, which makes travel insurance essential. Emergency medical transportation benefits by Allianz Global Assistance may reimburse the cost of emergency medical evacuation for emergencies listed under your policy.

You should know that the distance you must be taken to receive treatment, and the severity of your condition, impact the cost of transport. For example, let’s say you are airlifted from a remote area after falling and fracturing your leg during a hike. If there is no nearby medical facility and the area is hard to reach, you may receive trauma support and be flown from the area via helicopter. If you have received treatment at a facility but need to be moved to larger, specialized facility for complex care, then you may be flown via a fixed-wing aircraft.

Travel insurance benefits by Allianz Global Assistance may reimburse the cost of medically necessary emergency medical transportation. Situations that necessitate emergency medical transportation include serious injuries and illnesses and the unavailability of adequate medical care locally. 

Medical evacuation differs from repatriation. Medical evacuation prioritizes stabilization and getting you to the nearest, adequate medical facility for immediate care. The focus is on urgency and receiving the appropriate care quickly. If you do not need to be transported to another facility for additional care, but you are not well enough to be discharged, you will likely be repatriated.

Repatriation involves transporting a patient back to their home country for ongoing treatment or rehabilitation after they have been stabilized and medical professionals determine they are well enough to travel. Travel insurance benefits by Allianz Global Assistance reimburse the cost of evacuation, transportation between medical facilities and repatriation if you experience a medical emergency included in your policy. 

The first priority when a Canadian is hospitalized due to a medical emergency while travelling and has medical transportation benefits, including evacuation and repatriation, is to ensure that they are at an appropriate medical facility and getting the emergency care they need. 

If the patient's condition improves and their doctor and the travel insurance provider's medical team say they are well enough to travel, the travel insurance provider may arrange for them to fly home to continue their treatment.

The travel insurance provider will contact local hospitals near the patient's home in Canada if they need to be readmitted upon returning to Canada. Hospitals always give priority to patients who live in their catchment area. Once a hospital is located, the travel insurance provider will identify an accepting physician and coordinate a transfer of medical information between the accepting physician and the sending physician.

After the receiving physician agrees to accept the patient, a bed must be available at the facility where the physician is located before the medical repatriation can happen. The search for a hospital bed will be expanded beyond the catchment area of the patient’s residence if one cannot be secured there within a reasonable timeframe.

Securing a bed can take from a few hours to several weeks depending on factors including:

  • Type of bed needed (ex. ICU vs. medical bed).
  • Outbreaks in a facility: Hospitals with flu outbreaks will not be allowed to receive any additional patients until the outbreak is contained.
  • Volume of ‘overflow patients’ in the emergency ward: Hospitals redirect patients to other facilities when they are at capacity.
  • Availability of equipment or procedures to care for the patient’s condition.
  • Timing of bed availability as it pertains to a patient’s needs. Ex.: There may only be a small window of time that the patient has before a surgery needs to be done to have the best outcome. If a bed is not available in time, then the patient cannot be moved.

When a receiving bed becomes available, the travel insurance provider schedules the appropriate mode of transportation based on care needs which could include: air ambulance, commercial flight with escort, ground ambulance etc. The provider will continue to monitor the repatriation every step of the way until the patient is settled in at the receiving hospital in Canada.

Throughout the repatriation process, the patient’s well-being is the first priority. As such, patients are only transported when both the treating physician and the travel insurance provider’s medical team have fully confirmed that the patient is stable enough to travel, and a receiving physician and bed at an appropriate facility within their catchment area in Canada have been arranged.

After you have been repatriated, check back in with your insurance provided to tie up any loose ends regarding reimbursement for emergency medical treatment and transportation. Your travel insurer can walk you through obtaining any necessary paperwork detailing your treatment that you may need to file your insurance claim.

Even after seeing the world, most travellers agree that there’s no place like home. It's comforting to know that medical transportation and repatriation insurance benefits may help if you experience a travel emergency and need to return early. These benefits can help return you to familiar surroundings and put you well on the road to recovery.

If you have any questions about your travel insurance coverage, make sure to contact Allianz Global Assistance at 1-844-310-1578.


Travel insurance is underwritten by CUMIS General Insurance Company, a member of The Co-operators Group of Companies, administered by Allianz Global Assistance, which is a registered business name of AZGA Service Canada Inc.


Related articles
Travel protected with Allianz Global Assistance
Or call us at 1-844-310-1578 
to speak with one of our agents.
Join our Community of Travellers!
Get great travel tips, updates and news straight to your inbox with our monthly eNewsletter.

Warning - The E-Mail Address configured for this form is either unverified or invalid. Please verify the E-Mail Address and try again later.

A verification E-Mail was sent to the following E-Mail addresses:

Kindly check the corresponding inbox for a verification E-Mail and verify it.

Click the "Submit" button to sign up for this eNewsletter - you can unsubscribe at any time.

Enter the text from the box. 60 seconds remaining. Can't read the text?