Latest news with #KelownaGeneralHospital
CTV News
24-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Uncertainty during Kelowna pediatric ward closure
As Kelowna General Hospital enters its fifth-week without a dedicated pediatric unit, local politicians want the minister to meet with health-care workers. The closure of the pediatric unit in Kelowna General Hospital was said to last six weeks when Interior Health made the announcement on May 21. But as that deadline nears, there is less clarity as to if that deadline will be met. Gavin Dew, MLA for Kelowna-Mission, is losing hope. 'My confidence in the Minister of Health is diminishing by the day,' he said. Health Minister Josie Osborne was not available for an interview Monday, but the ministry sent CTV News a statement from Interior Health CEO Susan Brown, which said 'the goal is to reopen the inpatient pediatric unit as soon as it is safe and feasible,' without providing an exact date. 'The inability of the minister to communicate a clear timeline is emblematic of the lack of a clear plan, lack of a clear approach and the lack of clear leadership,' said Dew. Emergency physician Dr. Jeffrey Eppler says the focus shouldn't be the politics. 'This is about children; it's not about politics. It existed long before the NDP took government,' he said. Castanet reported that last Thursday, a three-year-old Kelowna boy who broke his arm couldn't receive surgery at KGH due to the closure. Kamloops, Vernon and Penticton were unable to take him, so it wasn't until 10 a.m. the next morning when the boy was taken via plane to Vancouver for proper treatment at BC Children's Hospital. 'The uncertainty that every family in Kelowna and the broader catchment area of Interior Health is dealing with- we don't know if the medical system we're paying for that we rely on will be there when we need,' said Dew. A town hall is being planned for July 2 to discuss the health care crisis. The Health Minister has been invited to the event – but whether or not she'll be there is still unclear.
CTV News
24-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Calls for health minister to visit Kelowna
Vancouver Watch As Kelowna General Hospital enters its fifth-week without a dedicated pediatric unit, local politicians want the minister to meet with health-care workers.
Global News
20-06-2025
- Health
- Global News
Former pediatrics head at Kelowna hospital says calls for changes were ignored by IH
When Dr. Kate Runkle was head of the pediatrics department at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) between 2019 and 2021, she says she constantly pushed for changes to the pediatric staffing and service model. 'I did presentations at the highest levels that I could to advocate change,' Runkle told Global News. However, Runkle says those calls for changes to Interior Health (IH) administration continually fell on deaf ears. 'It was like screaming underwater, like we just didn't get anywhere,' Runkle said. The unsuccessful pleas from pediatricians working at the hospital started in 2019. Feeling unheard and devalued for several years, according to Runkle, pediatricians began to resign. In 2023 alone, seven pediatricians handed in their resignations. Runkle was one of them. Story continues below advertisement 'At a certain point, it just became unsafe,' Runkle said. 'I use the analogy of working at a construction site and if you are alerting your staff and your boss about unsafe work conditions over and over again and you're not being heard — I mean, you would quit. You would go somewhere else.' The unsafe conditions Runkle is referring to is the physical layout of the five different areas that all too often, a single pediatrician has to provide coverage in. 'In simplest terms, imagine you are working in a space that is five separate areas,' she said. 'These areas are physically in different buildings in the hospital. They're on different floors. They're physically separated from each other, and in each of those spaces, is the potential for a critically-ill child or newborn.' Those spaces include labour and delivery, the pediatrics unit, neonatal intensive care unit, the emergency department and the adult ICU, where critically-ill children are placed given the lack of a pediatric ICU at KGH. Runkle says being in different areas at once is impossible, prompting physicians to make very difficult decisions on which child will receive their limited care. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'Not only does there need to be a complete shift in the way that we provide service at Kelowna General Hospital, but in a way that the administration responds to our concerns before we can move forward,' she said. Story continues below advertisement While the resignations did cause occasional disruptions of pediatric services, on May 26, they resulted in the closure of the entire pediatric ward for at least six weeks. IH has said the decision was a difficult one to make but necessary to protect pediatric coverage for critical services, such as high-risk deliveries. Among the changes that pediatricians have long called for is a staffing model that has at least two pediatricians on shift 24/7. 'We started advocating for double coverage. We actually voluntarily split ourselves in half in 2015 to allow for two people on during the day to cover both the neonatal side and the pediatric side in the hospital. So we did that on our own volition,' Runkle said. 'We started advocating to completely split the services for 24 hours a day, starting in 2019.' Instead of looking back internally at how the situation was managed and why those concerns expressed by doctors weren't taken seriously, both B.C.'s health minister, Josie Osborne, and IH CEO Susan Brown have repeatedly blamed the crisis on the current global doctor shortage. 'In a time of a global shortage of physicians and a shortage of pediatricians….they have made a difficult decision to close the pediatric facility,' Osborne said at a unrelated news conference on May 22 when asked about the situation by Global News. Story continues below advertisement Brown also continues to blame the crisis on the COVID-19 pandemic. 'In 2019, some of the pediatric doctors came forward with some concerns about some resources they wanted to see and some planning started but then of course the pandemic came into play,' Brown told Global News in a Zoom interview on June 5. 2:09 Interior Health executive compensation despite ongoing issues at KGH Brown is set to retire in December. The B.C. Conservatives have called on her resignation to fast-track a leadership transition to get a new CEO in place sooner to tackle the crisis. Brown, however, continues to be backed by Osborne and the chair of the IH board of directors, Dr. Robert Halpenny. In an email to Global News on Wednesday, IH stated one new pediatrician is slated to start working at the hospital this summer with two more expected to join in September. Story continues below advertisement But as Kelowna's population grows, so does the number of pediatric patients and complex medical cases, which will require a lot more resources and a bolstered delivery model to meet the growing needs. 'That's been one of the biggest challenges for us on the ground, is that there are just more kids in Kelowna, and therefore more kids who are getting severely, severely sick,' Runkle said. 'We are not keeping up.' As IH looks ahead at a leadership transition with Brown's end-of-year retirement, Runkle and her colleagues hope whoever takes over makes pediatric care in Kelowna a priority. 'There needs to be a champion within the administration who is making a long term plan for pediatric service delivery in Kelowna…that includes vision for the future,' Runkle said.
CTV News
09-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Pediatric ward closure in Kelowna triggers fears of ripple effect in B.C. hospitals
A treatment room in the emergency department at Peter Lougheed hospital is pictured in, Calgary, Alta., Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh Dr. Jeff Eppler, an emergency room physician at Kelowna General Hospital, is getting ready for a hectic summer. He's not only thinking about the typical seasonal spike — but the ripple effects of the closure of the hospital's dedicated pediatric ward from May 26 to July 4 due to what Interior Health called 'limited physician availability.' 'It's very difficult, but then you throw this pediatric service disruption in … (it's) just going make our life a lot more difficult, especially as we go into the summer, as things become much busier,' he said. Eppler said ER staff would have to treat some children who would typically be directed onward to pediatrics. 'We can provide safe and effective acute care, but rely on our pediatric colleagues for their support and far deeper knowledge, as well as for providing ongoing care. We cannot be de facto pediatricians as a long-term solution to this current crisis,' he said. And Eppler predicted the resource drain would extend outside the hospital, to ambulance services, as Kelowna General is forced to send other children to other hospitals, in Vernon, Penticton, or potentially even the Kootenays more than 300 kilometres away. Typically, it's the other way around. 'So it's kind of reverse of what we normally do,' Eppler said. 'That certainly ties up ambulances, resources, and it's not great for families or kids, who have a one-to-four hour drive to the other centre.' The closure of Kelowna's pediatric ward is part of ongoing hospital staffing shortages that have caused rolling closures of emergency rooms across the province. Service disruptions at the pediatric ward and concerns about the state of care at Kelowna General are also not new. But the abrupt nature of the pediatric closure last week, and a recent warning from doctors about maternity care is putting one of the province's biggest regional hospitals in the spotlight. Nine doctors working in the department of obstetrics and gynecology released a statement last month warning about a 'growing crisis' in maternity care putting the 'safety of patients and newborns' at 'serious risk' unless officials take immediate actions. They said primary maternity care at the hospital was 'facing a collapse' as early as June 1 because of a 'critical shortage' of family physicians willing or able to provide such care. 'This means that many pregnant patients may arrive at the hospital in labour with no doctor available to provide safe, continuous care during delivery.' Then came the closure of the pediatric ward last week. It should have 12 full-time pediatricians, Interior Health said, but when it closed, staffing was put at five and a half doctors. Susan Brown, president and chief executive officer of Interior Health, said the ward was closed to 'preserve the higher level of care' offered by the pediatricians, who will be redeployed. 'So that would be on our neonatal intensive care unit and some other work at the site,' she said. 'So we've done that to ensure safe patient care, but also thinking about the wellness and retention of the medical staff who continue to go above and beyond.' The hospital with 497 beds received 95,022 emergency room visits in 2023-24, according to Interior Health. It not only serves Greater Kelowna with an estimated population of 235,000, but is also one of two 'tertiary referral hospitals' providing specialized and complex care to a larger region that is home to almost 900,000 people. Adriane Gear, president of the BC Nurses' Union, said nurses at Kelowna General are now responsible for managing acutely ill pediatric patients in an 'already strained emergency department setting' not designed for ongoing pediatric in-patient care. 'This compromises safety, delays treatment, and can increase the risk of poor outcomes,' she said in a letter shared by the union. 'Nurses entered this profession to deliver safe, high quality care — not to be forced into situations that put their patients at risk.' Eppler meanwhile predicted the pediatric ward closure would worsen ER wait times. 'We definitely provide good quality care, but it's becoming increasingly challenging, even before this disruption in pediatric services,' he said. 'We have been coping really for years, and we have been sounding the alarm for a long time, like a broken record.' Eppler said overcrowding 'is really contributing to moral injury and burnout' among physicians and nursing staff. A report from the Montreal Economic Institute released this month said that the median length of a stay in Kelowna General's emergency room was three hours and 24 minutes, lower than the provincial figure of four hours, 13 minutes. Eppler said about 10 per cent of ER admissions involve children. 'On some days, none of those pediatric patients, once they're seen, will need to go in the hospital,' he says. 'But some days, we might admit three or four of them.' Eppler said Wednesday that seven transfers of pediatric patients from Kelowna General to other hospitals had taken place since the ward closure, a figure confirmed by Interior Health. 'But I know those numbers are gonna go up there,' he said. 'So you are gonna see sick children that are going to need admission, and we are going have to transport these patients, if there are beds available at other centres.' Mayor Everett Baker of Grand Forks, a community of some 4,100 about 200 kilometres southeast of Kelowna, said he was concerned about the situation at Kelowna General. Grand Forks has a community hospital with nine ER beds, but depends on other hospitals for more specialized services. Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital is Grand Forks' primary hospital for pediatric care, but Kelowna General had served as a secondary destination, he said. While the closure of the pediatric ward at Kelowna had not yet had an impact on Grand Forks, he agreed with Eppler's prediction of ripple effects throughout the region. 'If there's something that goes on in Kelowna, it can't help but affect other regions just because it is such a major hospital,' Baker said. Small rural communities have fewer options than urban areas, he said. 'It's a different dynamic because in Vancouver, you might have four or five different hospitals … you can access.' Brown said Interior Health was also concerned about the effects of the pediatric closure on other hospitals. She said the ER department would remain open to any pediatric patients. 'But should your child need to be transferred to an alternate site, we have added resources to ensure that there's time to do that in a safe way,' she said. Brown said an additional pediatrician would arrive in July with two more in September. But she could not commit to reopening the ward on July 5, saying the date would be set in consultation with doctors. B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne said Friday that she had talked with Brown about recruitment at Kelowna General. She said her ministry was working with doctors to ensure services are in place during a 'very, very challenging time.' Osborne added that recruitment issues at the hospital should be seen within the 'context of a global health care worker shortage.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2025. Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press
CTV News
09-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Pediatric ward closure in Kelowna triggers fears of ripple effect in B.C. hospitals
A treatment room in the emergency department at Peter Lougheed hospital is pictured in, Calgary, Alta., Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh Dr. Jeff Eppler, an emergency room physician at Kelowna General Hospital, is getting ready for a hectic summer. He's not only thinking about the typical seasonal spike — but the ripple effects of the closure of the hospital's dedicated pediatric ward from May 26 to July 4 due to what Interior Health called 'limited physician availability.' 'It's very difficult, but then you throw this pediatric service disruption in … (it's) just going make our life a lot more difficult, especially as we go into the summer, as things become much busier,' he said. Eppler said ER staff would have to treat some children who would typically be directed onward to pediatrics. 'We can provide safe and effective acute care, but rely on our pediatric colleagues for their support and far deeper knowledge, as well as for providing ongoing care. We cannot be de facto pediatricians as a long-term solution to this current crisis,' he said. And Eppler predicted the resource drain would extend outside the hospital, to ambulance services, as Kelowna General is forced to send other children to other hospitals, in Vernon, Penticton, or potentially even the Kootenays more than 300 kilometres away. Typically, it's the other way around. 'So it's kind of reverse of what we normally do,' Eppler said. 'That certainly ties up ambulances, resources, and it's not great for families or kids, who have a one-to-four hour drive to the other centre.' The closure of Kelowna's pediatric ward is part of ongoing hospital staffing shortages that have caused rolling closures of emergency rooms across the province. Service disruptions at the pediatric ward and concerns about the state of care at Kelowna General are also not new. But the abrupt nature of the pediatric closure last week, and a recent warning from doctors about maternity care is putting one of the province's biggest regional hospitals in the spotlight. Nine doctors working in the department of obstetrics and gynecology released a statement last month warning about a 'growing crisis' in maternity care putting the 'safety of patients and newborns' at 'serious risk' unless officials take immediate actions. They said primary maternity care at the hospital was 'facing a collapse' as early as June 1 because of a 'critical shortage' of family physicians willing or able to provide such care. 'This means that many pregnant patients may arrive at the hospital in labour with no doctor available to provide safe, continuous care during delivery.' Then came the closure of the pediatric ward last week. It should have 12 full-time pediatricians, Interior Health said, but when it closed, staffing was put at five and a half doctors. Susan Brown, president and chief executive officer of Interior Health, said the ward was closed to 'preserve the higher level of care' offered by the pediatricians, who will be redeployed. 'So that would be on our neonatal intensive care unit and some other work at the site,' she said. 'So we've done that to ensure safe patient care, but also thinking about the wellness and retention of the medical staff who continue to go above and beyond.' The hospital with 497 beds received 95,022 emergency room visits in 2023-24, according to Interior Health. It not only serves Greater Kelowna with an estimated population of 235,000, but is also one of two 'tertiary referral hospitals' providing specialized and complex care to a larger region that is home to almost 900,000 people. Adriane Gear, president of the BC Nurses' Union, said nurses at Kelowna General are now responsible for managing acutely ill pediatric patients in an 'already strained emergency department setting' not designed for ongoing pediatric in-patient care. 'This compromises safety, delays treatment, and can increase the risk of poor outcomes,' she said in a letter shared by the union. 'Nurses entered this profession to deliver safe, high quality care — not to be forced into situations that put their patients at risk.' Eppler meanwhile predicted the pediatric ward closure would worsen ER wait times. 'We definitely provide good quality care, but it's becoming increasingly challenging, even before this disruption in pediatric services,' he said. 'We have been coping really for years, and we have been sounding the alarm for a long time, like a broken record.' Eppler said overcrowding 'is really contributing to moral injury and burnout' among physicians and nursing staff. A report from the Montreal Economic Institute released this month said that the median length of a stay in Kelowna General's emergency room was three hours and 24 minutes, lower than the provincial figure of four hours, 13 minutes. Eppler said about 10 per cent of ER admissions involve children. 'On some days, none of those pediatric patients, once they're seen, will need to go in the hospital,' he says. 'But some days, we might admit three or four of them.' Eppler said Wednesday that seven transfers of pediatric patients from Kelowna General to other hospitals had taken place since the ward closure, a figure confirmed by Interior Health. 'But I know those numbers are gonna go up there,' he said. 'So you are gonna see sick children that are going to need admission, and we are going have to transport these patients, if there are beds available at other centres.' Mayor Everett Baker of Grand Forks, a community of some 4,100 about 200 kilometres southeast of Kelowna, said he was concerned about the situation at Kelowna General. Grand Forks has a community hospital with nine ER beds, but depends on other hospitals for more specialized services. Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital is Grand Forks' primary hospital for pediatric care, but Kelowna General had served as a secondary destination, he said. While the closure of the pediatric ward at Kelowna had not yet had an impact on Grand Forks, he agreed with Eppler's prediction of ripple effects throughout the region. 'If there's something that goes on in Kelowna, it can't help but affect other regions just because it is such a major hospital,' Baker said. Small rural communities have fewer options than urban areas, he said. 'It's a different dynamic because in Vancouver, you might have four or five different hospitals … you can access.' Brown said Interior Health was also concerned about the effects of the pediatric closure on other hospitals. She said the ER department would remain open to any pediatric patients. 'But should your child need to be transferred to an alternate site, we have added resources to ensure that there's time to do that in a safe way,' she said. Brown said an additional pediatrician would arrive in July with two more in September. But she could not commit to reopening the ward on July 5, saying the date would be set in consultation with doctors. B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne said Friday that she had talked with Brown about recruitment at Kelowna General. She said her ministry was working with doctors to ensure services are in place during a 'very, very challenging time.' Osborne added that recruitment issues at the hospital should be seen within the 'context of a global health care worker shortage.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2025. Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press
