Interior Health ‘working to address concerns’ raised by KGH doctors

As doctors at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) sound the alarm, Interior Health (IH) says it is actively working to recruit more family doctors, nurse practitioners and other health care professionals.

In a statement provided to KelownaNow, IH’s executive medical director for the region, Dr. Sam Azzam, said the health authority is experiencing a “prolonged shortage of primary care providers who support maternity care.”

That includes family doctors, nurse practitioners and midwives.

“Unfortunately, three family physicians at the Central Okanagan Maternity Clinic who have been supporting deliveries at KGH provided notice of resignation, effective May 31, 2025,” Azzam explained.

“This impacts specialty physicians at KGH, who will be supporting an additional 20-40 births per month, until the clinic is able to resume delivery services.”

Azzam’s comments come after nine members of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at KGH went public with “urgent concerns about a growing crisis in maternity care in the Central Okanagan.”

They said the need for the limited number of specialty physicians to take on the additional births is “not a safe or sustainable solution.”

It will put patients and providers at unacceptable risk, they claimed, and is something they’ve been warning hospital administration and IH about for more than a year.

“We continue to meet with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and we are working to address concerns raised by medical staff KGH, including their request for increased compensation,” noted Azzam.

“The remaining primary care providers at Central Okanagan Maternity Clinic are focused on efforts to provide pre-natal and post-natal care at the clinic and are not currently able to support deliveries at KGH.”

Azzam said the health authority’s goal is to provide expectant families in the Central Okanagan with the services and support they need throughout their pregnancies and into their post-natal care period.

The issues raised by maternity doctors at KGH came days after IH announced a six-week closure of the hospital’s general pediatric unit.

KGH doctors have gone public with their grave concerns about that issue as well.