Seven children and teens have been transferred from Kelowna General Hospital due to the unprecedented and ongoing temporary closure of its pediatric care unit.听
A shortage of hospital paediatricians led to the 10-bed unit鈥檚 shutdown on May 26 and it will remain closed until at least early July.听
鈥淭he decision to close the paediatric unit was obviously a very difficult one but the safety of children was at the heart of that decision, and also the wellness of the medical staff,鈥 Interior Health chief executive officer Susan Brown said Thursday in an interview.听
鈥淚 do know, as a mom, having a sick child is extremely anxiety-provoking and the last thing you want to hear is that your child needs to be transferred to an alternate hospital,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut I do want people to know, if they have a sick child and they need to go to the emergency department, they should.鈥
鈥淥ver the last 11 days, we鈥檝e had seven transfers to alternate hospitals within the Interior, and we are co-ordinating with those hospitals to make sure that they are ready and able to take care of that child,鈥 Brown said.听
鈥淎nd we do have a hardship policy related to any additional costs. We will do everything we can to mitigate the inconvenience to them,鈥 she said.听
Temporary closure of the pediatric unit does not mean there are no children or youths听under age 18 at KGH. The hospital鈥檚 neo-natal unit, where newborn babies are cared for, remains open. 鈥淭hat population is at extreme risk, so we needed to keep the paediatricians for that service,鈥 Brown said.听
And any children who present at KGH requiring emergency surgery will undergo the procedure at the hospital, she added.
Since the unit鈥檚 closure, Interior Health has added another physician or a pediatric community specialist to the ER department, Brown said, to help deal with any extra work required in assessing or transferring children to other hospitals.
News of the unit鈥檚 closure, at a hospital as big as Kelowna鈥檚, was taken by some as another startling sign of a health care system in crisis. 鈥淧roviding timely, quality care, and upholding our Hippocratic oath, is becoming increasingly difficult as a chronic lack of resources pushes our systems past capacity - and it鈥檚 patients who are paying the price,鈥 said Dr. Jeffrey Eppler, a KGH ER doctor.听
鈥淭his is what a health system on the verge of collapse looks like,鈥 said BC Conservative MLA Macklin McCall (West Kelowna-Peachland). 鈥淭he NDP are failing to match sufficient health services with population growth in the Okanagan and have proven they are content to leave Kelowna children paying the price.鈥
But Brown said many health authorities are struggling to recruit enough paediatricians to work in hospitals, and the challenges faced by KGH are not unlike those being experienced elsewhere.
Kelowna General is funded for 12 pediatricians but only had six on staff, meaning there weren鈥檛 enough to provide the kind of round-the-clock care required in the unit.听听
As with other departments, recruiting of paediatricians had been primarily the responsibility of those overseeing the department, Brown said. Now, she said, a new and more centralized recruiting system is in place to provide help in hiring to all departments.听
One new pediatrician will be coming in July, allowing for the unit鈥檚 re-opening, and two more will arrive in September, Brown said.听Other specialists with related skills are also coming, she said.听
There are about two dozen paediatricians working in Kelowna, but most of them do not provide services at the hospital. Asked why this is the case, Brown said, it was a matter of personal preference in many cases but she also acknowledged some pediatricians believe their input wasn鈥檛 valued by health managers.听
鈥淚 would say that part of that frustration is their feeling their voices weren鈥檛 heard and we need to be listening and responding,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e pulling every string to make this a great place to work, in the hope that some of our community pediatricians will consider coming back.鈥