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By Dylana Kneeshaw

SPECIALIST RECRUITMENT

Interior Health CEO talks specialist recruitment struggle at RIH, Cardiac Care Unit status

Nov 10, 2025 | 4:44 PM

KAMLOOPS — Recruitment and retention have become oft-repeated terms touted by health authorities when staffing shortages are discussed, and the most recent example has been the resignation of all seven OB-GYNs with surgical privileges at Royal Inland Hospital.

But obstetrics isn’t the only department under pressure. The emergency department, cardiology, radiology and other sections have a serious need for more doctors and nurses.

In light of the recent OB-GYN resignations at Royal Inland, the Thompson Regional Hospital District (TRHD) has been meeting with Interior Health to talk about workload burnout, recruitment and keeping the medical staff Kamloops has.

“What’s the short-, medium-, long-term plan so we don’t get into this situation again, where a large group of physicians have to resign?” says TRHD Chair Mike O’Reilly. “We don’t want to be here again, so how do we ensure that doesn’t happen?”

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Problems reached a boiling point for the obstetrics department, but other sections of the hospital are short on specialist nurses and doctors.

“They have a domino effect on each other, so if there’s a specialty that’s lower, then it impacts the workload in a second specialty and then they may find it more difficult to recruit,” explained Interior Health’s CEO Sylvia Weir, in conversation with CFJC Today recently.

An example of the trickle-down effect is the Cardiac Care Unit (CCU), which was closed over the pandemic to reallocate staffing to other strained departments. The fact that the unit still hasn’t reopened prompted the ICCHA Wish Fund to postpone its annual fundraising gala in protest.

“All I can say is, it is a top priority. We need to support the cardiologists at this site who are one of the groups that are struggling and the CCU reopening is absolutely on my priority list,” said Weir when asked about the potential for reopening.

Cardiology needs more doctors and Weir couldn’t give a specific date for when exactly it would happen, but did say an expansion is planned for the CCU.

“What we have is a vision for a larger CCU that is located adjacent to the ICU so that we’re able to make the best use of our staff,” she says. “That project is a very big one that will take some time.”

According to IH, some of the problems at RIH stem from an increasing patient demand across all specialties, a shortage of doctors and changing expectations around physician working hours. O’Reilly adds some of this has been compounded by the thousands of residents in the surrounding region who are still without a family doctor.

“I think if we look back even further, it’s the linkage to a primary care provider that’s really putting extra pressure on the hospital system in general,” adds O’Reilly. “That’s something that really needs to be addressed in Kamloops. We have a much higher percentage in Kamloops versus Kelowna. How can we address that?”

Weir says she wants to see a community approach to the problem.

“I think we need to look at scheduling, I think we need to look at numbers of physicians, and we need to address the increased volume and we need to address the increased acuity — because patients are coming, and they’re sicker,” she adds.