Questions raised over outgoing IH CEO’s ability to solve crisis at Kelowna General Hospital – Okanagan

Rylie Nicholls spent a lot of time in the pediatric ward at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) before the five-year-old Lake Country girl died from an aggressive form of cancer in 2023.

“We had about 10 different admissions through Kelowna General Hospital,” Nicholls said.

The Lake Country mother, who also has an eight-year-old son, is upset about the pediatric ward closure due to a shortage of physicians.

“I’ve been through the journey. I know what it’s like,” Nicholls said.  “It saddens me and terrifies me for families now that will need it.”

The concerns have been echoed across the region since the pediatric unit closed on May 26, for at least six weeks.

Doctors have also gone public with their concerns saying their voices have been silenced for years as they pleaded with Interior Health (IH) for changes to the care model.

“We’ve been raising our voices for many years about the systemic issues at KGH and how they’ve been impacting staff and safety,” said Dr. Alysha MacKenzie-Feder, a Kelowna pediatrician.

“We wanted to make sure that that was heard and understood that this crisis really was predictable.”

Numerous pediatricians, including MacKenzie-Feder, have resigned from their hospital work in the last two years, citing difficult working conditions.

According to a letter signed by 13 pediatricians, there are only four pediatricians working at the hospital along with one newborn specialist.  They say the baseline calls for 12.

“Interior Health is an organization in limbo,” Conservative MLA for Kelowna-Mission Gavin Dew told Global News Wednesday.

Dew is concerned that with IH CEO Susan Brown set to retire in December, a quick resolution to the crisis may not be possible.

“We have a CEO who is six months away from departing and we have a crisis that is happening now, so that has left us in a place where we appear to have lame duck leadership,” Dew said.

Dew and two other local Conservative MLAs are set to meet with Brown on Thursday to discuss the crisis but he added that the community cannot afford to wait months for a new CEO to take over and tackle the problem,  suggesting that a leadership transition could be fast-tracked.

“I want to know whether the Minister of Health has confidence in the leadership of Interior Health because if the minister doesn’t have confidence, let’s get it over with. Let’s move forward. Let’s hit the reset button,” Dew said.

Minister of Health Josie Osborne was not available for comment Thursday.

IH’s board of directors chair, Dr. Robert Halpenny, said in a statement sent to Global News, “I am fully supportive of our CEO, Susan Brown, and her approach, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, to put in place solutions to address the staffing challenges in Kelowna General Hospital’s pediatrics unit. ”

The statement went on to say, “As a former clinician and CEO of Interior Health myself, I can say that both Susan’s efforts and her dedication to supporting the teams at IH, as well as our community and patients, is appreciated by the board and also aligned with what we think should be done.”

Halpenny added, “Although a significant reason for these shortages is the global lack of physicians, changes in how physicians practice and a growing population, we know she is still working hard to put systems and services in place.”

The statement does not include any mention of a revamped model of care that is being demanded by the doctors.

The pediatrician group has stated that IH is misleading the public by blaming the hospital crisis on a global physician shortage.

The doctors say it’s IH’s mismanagement that has resulted in the current crisis.

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