More than a hundred healthcare professionals have voiced their support for the nine members of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) who released a statement over concerns about patient care at the hospital.
Physicians of Anesthesiology, Surgery and Obstetrics and Gynecology released a statement Friday evening to highlight the “urgent challenges facing pediatric care at KGH," expanding on what their colleagues stated earlier this week.
“KGH serves a region of 250,000 people and is the primary referral hospital in the Interior Health Authority (IHA), which covers a population of 900,000,” stated the press release representing the views of more than 130 individuals.
“The closure of KGH’s inpatient pediatric service from May 26 to July 4, with potential for extension, is unprecedented for a hospital of this size. To our knowledge, no comparable event has occurred in British Columbia.”
Near the end of May, it was announced that the 10-bed inpatient general pediatric unit at KGH would be closed until at least the second week of July.
According to the physicians' recent statement, the closure means that all scheduled and or planned pediatric surgeries during the above time frame were cancelled.
“All surgeries not scheduled are considered emergencies, but the actual urgency can vary widely. Our ability to perform emergency pediatric surgery is limited to the most serious conditions,” added the statement.
“We reassure the public that if your child truly needs urgent surgery, it will occur at Kelowna General Hospital. After surgery, your child may be transferred to another hospital with pediatrician coverage.”
The physicians said that anesthesia for diagnostics has also been postponed during this period and children who present to the emergency department and require referral to a pediatrician “face great uncertainty.”
“IHA cites a national pediatrician shortage. However, Kelowna has over 20 pediatricians, with only five currently working at KGH,” explained the physicians.
“We have witnessed half the pediatric department resign in recent years, seemingly consistent with burnout and workload challenges.”
The statement added that KGH is a major pediatric referral hospital for Interior Health, but it is not resourced to provide the needed level of service that children and families require in the region.
“We need to move to what is known as a 'tier five hospital,’ which offers significantly more pediatric resources: a larger neonatal ICU with dedicated neonatologists, a pediatric ICU for older children with subspecialists, and a stand-alone pediatric emergency with subspecialists and multiple pediatric surgeons,” said the statement.
“Major referral hospitals in other health authorities have resources to provide tier five care, but Kelowna does not.”
The physicians stated that without investment and restructuring from the Ministry of Health, which is at least equivalent to the services that exist in Victoria, pediatric care in Kelowna will remain at risk.
“KGH is not a small-town hospital. It is a major tertiary care referral centre, serving a growing population in a large geographic area that is twice the size of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland combined,” the statement explained.
“Our distance from Vancouver and BC Children’s Hospital requires us to be able to deliver top-tier care here, similar to Victoria serving Vancouver Island.”
The more than 130 health professionals were not the only ones to share their input on the current issues plaguing KGH.
“Families in Kelowna are being put at risk because the NDP government failed to act when doctors raised the alarm - again and again - for over a year. It’s a crisis of neglect,” said Gavin Dew, MLA for Kelowna-Mission, on the initial warning from the nine members of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
“The Premier and the Health Minister, Josie Osborne, can’t ignore this any longer. It’s not acceptable for women to arrive at the hospital in labour without a doctor available. It’s reckless, it’s dangerous, and it’s a direct result of this government’s mismanagement of frontline care.”
Dew added that we’re living with a healthcare system held together with duct tape in Kelowna and that Premier David Eby must act now.
