Photo: Interior Health

FILE-KGH is experiencing a pediatric doctor shortage.

Emergency room doctors at Kelowna General Hospital have some concerns about the length of closure at the pediatric unit and how the information was conveyed to them.

"We knew there were upcoming interruptions in service but nothing of this magnitude," Dr. Jeffrey Eppler said in an email.

"There were meetings to try to accommodate this (pediatrics) service disruptions and IH has funded an extra emergency physician line but, again, we were not informed of the magnitude of the service interruption. We assumed a day or maybe two here and there. Not six weeks."

He said he's worried it will be a lot longer.

Dictating the closure is a pediatrician shortage, which should be somewhat lessened in July when a new doctor signs on. Another is expected to arrive shortly thereafter, Dr. Hussam Azzam, executive medical director in community and maternity care, said.

“Unfortunately, we are more than 60 per cent short in the pediatric group at Kelowna General Hospital, and this has been a longstanding problem,” Dr. Azzam said.

“Something needed to be done to maintain safe, appropriate care for the population, but also to protect the remaining pediatric physicians that we have.”

Burnout, he said, is an ongoing risk for doctors who have been “over-committed” and working longer hours for months to fill gaps.

Currently the hospital has funding for 12 pediatric physicians, though it only has six. They run the 10-unit general pediatric unit and the 14-bed neonatal intensive care unit.

“We were relying on locums coming from within Interior Health, within the province, and even from outside, from Alberta, Saskatchewan, to help us,” he said.

“We do have, with the support of the Ministry of Health, a very reasonable, generous remuneration package for locums. However, it's just become unsustainable to do that for the long term, particularly in May, June and early July.”

There are more than 100 pediatrics shifts in that time period that are uncovered, which prompted the decision to close the unit.

With its temporary shutdown, the limited pool of pediatricians will be reassigned to support the neonatal intensive care unit and high-risk deliveries.

Azzam said critical care services for children, including the emergency department and NICU, will remain open.

Despite the closure, Azzam said the public can rest assured that care levels will be upheld.

“For the general public, nothing should change,” Azzam said.

“They should go directly to KGH emergency, as they do currently, and they will be assessed by the emergency physician appropriately.”

Most doctors who work in the emergency department, Eppler said, learned about the pediatric service disruption through Castanet, with less than one week notice.