Overview

• The ward has been shut since May 26 because staffing fell to 5.5 pediatricians from the recommended 12.
• Emergency room staff are now managing inpatient pediatric cases and have facilitated seven patient transfers since the closure.
• Ambulances are stretched by transporting children to hospitals as far as 300 kilometres away, risking treatment delays.
• This disruption follows province-wide hospital staffing shortages and echoes recent warnings of a growing maternity care crisis at Kelowna General.
• Interior Health plans to add one pediatrician in July and two more in September under a recruitment push led by Health Minister Josie Osborne.