Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

HEALTHCARE IN KAMLOOPS

Former health minister says money isn’t solution to ongoing strain at RIH

Oct 21, 2025 | 4:25 PM

KAMLOOPS — The former health minister of B.C. is weighing in on recent news of medical staff resigning at Royal Inland Hospital, saying it’s a system-wide problem.

Early this week, the seven OB-GYNs who are leaving the hospital issued a statement explaining the extent of burnout that led to the move, while claiming the province and Interior Health did not accept solutions that had been repeatedly suggested by doctors.

Terry Lake was the health minister under the BC Liberal government between 2013 and 2017, and says regional health authorities have a mandate to address the health needs of a community. But he says it does fall on the premier and the health minister to step in if those health authorities haven’t solved ongoing problems — which, in this case, surround escalating complaints of working conditions at Royal Inland.

“I think the doctors are right in that money isn’t necessarily the answer,” says Lake. “In eight years, the health ministry budget has doubled, so if throwing money at the problem was the solution, we’d have a much better healthcare system.”

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Lake feels the ministry and Doctors of BC need to hash out a plan to resolve the working conditions doctors have flagged as unsafe and untenable — both to protect patients and keep physicians from leaving hospitals.

“Successive governments, including the one I was in, really haven’t dealt with the aging population, the growing population, and the change in the workforce, the profile of the medical profession and how physicians and other medical professionals work today versus how they were in the ’70s or ’80s,” said Lake. “I think rather than dealing with one problem at a time, we need to go back to the drawing board a little bit and try to figure out a plan.”

CFJC has requested interviews with Interior Health and BC’s health minister, and will have more on this developing story Wednesday (Oct. 22), including insight from a local physician.