Locums, potential new compensation model provide glimmers of hope for maternity care in Kamloops

Last October, Health Minister Adrian Dix announced a new compensation model that would transform how family physicians are paid for their work. Davis says that news provides some hope — but it requires urgency.

“That currently does not apply to maternity care. We don’t know what’s going to happen a year from now and maybe there will be a different model that comes out but we can’t wait a year,” he said. “We’re stuck with coming up with an interim solution that will, hopefully, help us bring some physicians back into maternity care.”

Davis notes the clinic’s leadership has been working with Interior Health and the Ministry of Health to bring physicians providing maternity care under the new compensation model and have made some headway. In the meantime, locums have stepped up to help fill out the on-call schedule for the next few months. Davis hopes that wave can continue.

“The media [exposure] has really helped attract some locums. We have locums coming to help us out over the next few months, which is something we were never able to get before, so that’s been great. What we are looking for is to find locums or new people who will allow us to fill the call schedule beyond that clinic closure date,” he said. “Our goal is, if we get new people or locums and we can put together a call schedule, then we can open the door. Maybe it happens in a step-wise fashion where we say, ‘Hey, we’ve got enough so that we can open in August and September’ and we go from there.”

In the past few years, TRFO has taken an average of 600 families from prenatal care through delivery — roughly 50 per cent of all babies delivered at Royal Inland Hospital annually. News of the clinic’s closure has sent a shockwave through the community.

“I’ve definitely heard lots of sadness and frustration in the community. I think TRFO has kind of become a staple in the community for patients. Even family physicians have become very reliant on the TRFO.”

As acute as the problem is in Kamloops, Davis believes it is only the beginning of a wave of potential closures across the province.

“TRFO, I feel like, is a little bit of a flashpoint for the province. We are not the only clinic that is failing here. I’ve had discussions with the department head in Kelowna — their group is also on verge of collapsing. Maybe a little bit delayed compared to where we are. The agreement we’re trying to come up with is, we’re hoping, something that would be amenable to other groups, as well.”

by James Peters

Locums, potential new compensation model provide glimmers of hope for maternity care in Kamloops

Our Community