HEALTHCARE – Seven obstetrician-gynecologists resign hospital privileges
(Image: Mel Rothenburger)
Seven obstetrician-gynecologists have resigned their in-hospital privileges at Royal Inland Hospital, citing unsafe workloads, chronic staff shortages and a lack of government support.
The doctors — Hilary Baikie, Jennifer Kozic, Paula Lott, Erin Adams, Michael Hsiao, Rita Chuang and Christine Sutton — stated in a letter to community healthcare providers, “Safety issues due to changing workload and inability to recruit have over many years pushed us to a point where, without sufficient IHA and provincial support, we are unable to continue with in-hospital care.”
It also noted recent issues with capacity at the Thompson Region Family Obstetrics Clinic in Royal Inland’s clinical services building.
They said withdrawal of in-hospital care will be phased out.
The move follows an announcement by several OB-GYNs in September they would have to stop taking new patients.
Kamloops MLAs Peter Milobar and Ward Stamer are blaming the resignations on NDP government “mismanagement.”
“This is what eight years of NDP mismanagement looks like,” Milobar, the MLA for Kamloops Centre said today (Oct. 14, 2025).
“Doctors have been sounding the alarm for years, and this government has turned a blind eye. Specialists are walking away because they no longer feel supported or safe, and physicians warn that Kamloops could face a complete loss of specialist women’s health services within four to six months if the government fails to act.”
Stamer, who represents the Kamloops-North Thompson riding, added: “This isn’t the first time we’ve heard these warnings, and that’s what makes it so frustrating. Royal Inland Hospital is a central hub and a critical lifeline for the region, yet the NDP continues to ignore the frontline staff who keep it running.”
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Suddenly politicians wake up after the animals have escaped through the barn door that was left open. Doctors and nurses don’t grow on trees.My wife retired from nursing around the end of Covid lockdown. Yes, Walter, a real person like you and me who had warm blood pumping through her body.
Our Deputy Mayor floored me this morning when she tried to take centre stage on the “baby doctor crisis”. People are still going to procreate, raise kids and be humans. Politicians don’t need to add straw and filler to try and address a human problem with humans who are doctors (or nurses).
Going through tough times in life make for better people. You’ve been there.
Let the Wannabe Mayors have their closed meetings. Too bad real people can’t be part of the solution.
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Is this a matter of too many patients (and therefore too much work) and not enough cash reward ?
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TELL THE TRUTH! STOP playing political games with women’s health. Grabbing political headlines is shameful. These doctors have been telling the government this for years and like a falling tree in the forest, no one hears them. Enough of the “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” stories, no one believes them anymore.
This is a national crisis which evolved over time, we can change the present but not the past. The roots of this crisis trace back to the mid-1990s federal funding cuts under Liberal Finance Minister Paul Martin (1993–2002), which triggered provincial austerity measures, including in BC under the NDP (1991–2001).
The Gordon Campbell era (BC Liberal Premier, 2001–2011) exacerbated the issue through aggressive cost-control and privatization pushes, despite campaign promises to expand health human resources. Private costs skyrocketed, not the public costs.
Stephen Harper’s Conservative government (2006–2015) is blamed for “cuts” via slower growth in health transfers post-2017 (implemented under Trudeau), straining provinces like BC and contributing to burnout and rural gaps
This crisis demands coordinated federal-provincial investment in training, rural incentives, and workload relief. Without it, as these dedicated doctors tell you, women’s health services risk further erosion, as warned by groups like the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada. Stop the political blame game, work together.
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The “socialists” in Victoria have had plenty of time to fix-it-all-for-good but it didn’t happen. The truth is, Walter, that modern medicine is centred on different values than in the past.
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This must be a serious mix up. These doctors have clearly not heard about the PAC that’s being built.
It’s time for Mayor-in-Waiting Mike O’Reilly to march down to IH and hand each and every resigning doctor a pamphlet on the PAC. They will absolutely most surely rescind their resignations.
Another huge win for Kamloops.
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everyone working for the government is up in arms…isn’t something that despite ample time off, good paycheques, benefits, pensions and generally good and relaxed work conditions the consensus seems to point in the direction that the government is the most insensitive and callous employer there is?
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You mean like BRIC furniture. I went in there last night just to look around. I said why is this place open, there are no customers. The reply was “they don’t care”, we work on commission, at least that was what was said. That Pierre is called “goodness of the entrepreneur”.
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Is this coincidental or political that this is happening on the same day that “Simon Fraser University (SFU) school of medicine is accepting applications for its first class of future doctors, marking the launch of the first new medical school in Western Canada in nearly 60 years.”
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oh, sure , Blame the NDP government that’s all you ever do
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