3 days ago
Some pediatric services to resume at Kelowna General Hospital after 6-week closure of unit
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Some pediatric services will resume at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) on Sunday, six weeks after the inpatient general pediatrics unit closed due to a doctor shortage.
The closure first began on May 26 at the 10-bed inpatient unit, prompting a group of pediatricians to come forward and say there were poor working conditions and a lack of communication at the hospital.
Physicians and the Opposition B.C. Conservative Party were sharply critical of the province and the Interior Health Authority, and the authority's CEO stepped down a few weeks after the closure was announced.
This week, Interior Health said elective pediatric surgeries and some diagnostic procedures for children would resume at the hospital. The unit will also begin admitting patients to the pediatric unit during daytime hours.
Dr. Mark Masterson, the vice-president of medicine for Interior Health, said the authority would be phasing in services in a way that would be safe for patients and sustainable for doctors.
"We have a schedule now with consistent coverage during the days, and that's allowed us to change," he told Chris Walker, host of CBC's Daybreak South, on Friday.
"We've been able to accomplish this both with the pediatricians in the community who have been [serving on locums] over time ... as well as the pediatricians who've been working at KGH in a full time and permanent capacity."
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Masterson said that the authority would have four new doctors join KGH over the summer and fall, and two of them would be arriving earlier than expected.
The doctor acknowledged that some patients would still need to be transferred to other hospitals within Interior Health, or to B.C. Children's Hospital in Vancouver, if it is deemed medically necessary.
Interior Health said that, to date, 22 patients were transferred to other hospitals in the region, and seven were taken to B.C. Children's Hospital. However, the health authority says it expects the number of pediatric transfers to decrease as it resumes services at KGH.
During the six-week closure, critical care services for children, including the emergency department and neonatal intensive care unit, remained open. Only general admissions were affected, according to Interior Health.
Concerns over workload
Earlier in June, Dr. Alysha MacKenzie-Feder told CBC News she and six other pediatricians left the hospital in 2023 because of years of unmanageable caseloads.
"It's not that there is a shortage of physicians, it's that the system doesn't exist for them to work safely and sustainably," Mackenzie-Feder said previously.
In response to the physician's concerns, Masterson said he acknowledged their frustration, and said the authority was making changes to ensure doctors' voices would be heard.
"Over the last while, we have been working very closely with the pediatricians on what we've been referring to as splitting the service," he said.
"And so working to have enough staff available at any given time so that there are two pediatricians available to the site."
The doctor also said the authority was planning to bring in associate physicians this summer, after licensing changes to allow them to practice in B.C. under the supervision of a senior physician.
"This is going to be an ongoing process, and we're going to continue to work on building and improving clinical services, not just in pediatrics, but in the other departments and not just at KGH," he said.
