Maternity care advocates not letting up after new Kamloops doctor hires

Kamloops has two new maternity specialists on the way as Interior Health works to replace its outgoing doctors, but advocates aren’t taking their feet off the gas.

Alix Dolson, an organizer behind Maternity Matters Kamloops, expects it could be years before women’s health care is stabilized.

“Yes, progress is being made, but the crisis has not been averted. We need to get to a point where care is stabilized, continuous and assured. That’s not where we’re at,” Dolson said.

Interior Health announced two gynecologists were hired to start in March 2026, while eight in total are at various stages in the hiring process. The health authority added that its on-call schedule for specialists has been settled, which comes after women needing less urgent gynecological care had appointments cancelled for on-call needs.

Seven obstetrician-gynecologists announced their intentions to resign from Royal Inland Hospital earlier this year, citing high workloads and risks to patient safety.

Interior Health has responded with an effort to hire up to nine or ten specialists, planning to have new doctors in place sometime in 2026.

Dolson said she has heard from Interior Health employees with similar concerns to the resigning doctors about work-life balance and safe health care, sometimes needing to balance “impossible decisions” over who gets attention and when.

“That puts people’s lives at risk, so those are serious concerns that people go to work with and face every single day,” she said.

It’s not just health care workers feeling the pressure.

“I’d say people are terrified. I know people who are delaying pregnancy because they don’t feel they can have adequate care, or people in high-risk pregnancies going without maternity care and being told to self-monitor with an at-home (baby fetal) Doppler (heart monitor),” Dolson said. “That’s unacceptable in a developed country.”

Maternity Matters Kamloops has so far organized two protest rallies and continues to advocate to government and Interior Health for improvements to local health care.

Interior Health has released a list summarizing maternity care programs in Kamloops, along with its updates on new hires. More information can be found on the Interior Health website here.