Conservative MLAs are sounding the alarm about interruptions to maternity wards at two BC hospitals.
On Thursday, Interior Health advised the public about “potential changes to maternity services” at the Kamloops hospital starting this weekend.
The health authority said the potential interruptions are due to physician scheduling over the summer.
“News that gaps in physician coverage could lead to reduced access to maternity care in Kamloops has been met with shock and disbelief across the city and the broader region,” said Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar in a statement.
“Just last week, we learned that pregnant women in Prince George would be diverted to Kamloops due to reduced obstetric services throughout August. Now, with a potential service interruption in Kamloops, expectant mothers are left with even fewer options for care and support across northern and Interior BC.”
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Earlier this week, interruptions to maternity services were announced at the University Hospital of Northern BC (UHNBC) in Prince George.
The service reductions are expected to start in August and are due to a shortage of specialists.
Both announcements come after an unprecedented closure of the pediatric ward at Kelowna General Hospital. During that closure, physicians at KGH also warned of a “growing crisis” in maternity care in the Central Okanagan.
On Tuesday, the BC Conservative Caucus issued a statement on the closure in Prince George, which stressed the importance of the only tertiary care hospital for obstetrics in all of Northern BC.
It is where hospitals in Fort St. John, Dawson Creek, Hazelton, Terrace, and Prince Rupert already send high-risk pregnancies. Each of those communities are between an hour to seven and a half hour drive from UHNBC.
The statement said some patients could be transferred to other hospitals, potentially hundreds of kilometres aware, to receive the care they need.
“Northern Health has been aware of this looming obstetrics crisis since January, and there are still no solutions locally or from Victoria. This is what the collapse of a health care system looks like,” said Kiel Giddens, MLA for Prince George–Mackenzie, in the statement issued July 22.
“If you’re an expectant mother in the North, the message is clear: BC can’t deliver the standard of care you deserve.”
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Rosalyn Bird, MLA for Prince George–Valemount, called the closure “mind-boggling” and said rural British Columbians are being “treated like second-class citizens.”
“We’ve reached the point where expecting mothers in Northern BC might be sent hours away to Kamloops or Vancouver to give birth,” she said. “That’s not care. That’s abandonment.”
In the July 22 statement, Brennan Day, MLA for Courtenay–Comox and Opposition Critic for Rural Health and Seniors' Health, said UHNBC is supposed to be the final stop for high-risk pregnancies but now families are facing a stark chance of being turned away.
“There’s a national standard of care for obstetrics,” said Day. “It means timely, women-centered, safe care that respects diverse needs. No mother in Northern Health would choose this chaos. BC needs to do better.”
Milobar said these closures represent an “ongoing and expanding” collapse of BC’s healthcare system and called on Premier David Eby and Health Minister Josie Osborne to do more to stabilize the system.
“Poor planning, a failure to invest in stabilizing nurse and physician staffing, and a lack of oversight and accountability for regional health authorities have resulted in cascading failures throughout the province,” he said.
“We need real leadership to stop the bleeding, right-size the health care system, and restore public trust.”
The BC Conservatives are calling on the NDP government to recruit and retain rural health professionals, fix maternity care access and “stop treating rural British Columbians like they don’t matter.”
