File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

OB-GYN UPDATE

Interior Health touts recruitment, retention progress on RIH OB-GYN departures

Nov 5, 2025 | 4:31 PM

KAMLOOPS — Several weeks ago, Royal Inland was facing a mass exodus in the hospital’s OB-GYN department, with all seven of those doctors resigning their in-hospital privileges. However, Interior Health says some progress has been made in preventing a gap in obstetrics care.

Obstetrics and gynecology care has been top of mind for many women and families in the Kamloops region in recent weeks. But Wednesday (Nov. 5), the CEO of Interior Health says she is feeling optimistic about the latest conversations to bring in new doctors and potentially keep some of the outgoing physicians from leaving.

“There are lots of complex issues at play here but I’m convinced there is a path through it. We’ve made some good progress on the recruitment front so I hope, with the combination of new recruits and some of the obstetricians choosing to stay at RIH, we will get back to service stability pretty quickly,” said Sylvia Weir, speaking to CFJC.

Weir says the province has been dealing with the issues around physician compensation and the health authority has been trying to find ways to ease the obstetrics workload. However, she notes even if all of the outgoing doctors stayed, the hospital would still need to recruit more.

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At this point, Weir says there are five obstetricians who have expressed interest in coming to Kamloops and, ideally, the health authority would like to see 10 obstetricians for Royal Inland.

“I think we need to be more creative. Even if we do manage to land these five obstetricians, there is a shortage of obstetricians across Canada. I don’t want us to be here again,” she notes. “I want to create a more sustainable service with a wider foundation and also look to focus on the family-practice end of obstetrics — the low-risk mothers, which is the majority of mothers. If we can boost the primary care and the midwifery service, I think we will set the stage for a much stronger future.”

Weir also pointed out some of the workload impact does come from fewer people being attached to family doctors or nurse practitioners.

“We end up having to treat them as if they were high-risk because they haven’t been followed through their pregnancy and then (we have) a lack of family practitioners who are trained in obstetrical care. It used to be — when I had my first baby, my family practitioner followed me throughout, delivered the baby, and then looked after me afterward. There are fewer and fewer of those people choosing to go into that now, so all of the activity then ends up at the obstetrician’s door,” explained Weir. “That has definitely, over the last I would say five years, contributed to a lot of the workload pressure — either not having a family practitioner or not having a family practitioner with obstetrical skills.”

At this point, Weir says the outgoing obstetricians will make their own decisions, but she’s hoping they’ll feel supported and decide to stay.

Interior Health accepted the resignations of the Royal Inland obstetricians nearly three weeks ago and, if a solution can’t be reached, those doctors are set to be done with the in-hospital, surgical privileges a little more than two months from now.