Royal Inland Hospital looks to retain, recruit obstetrician-gynecologists to 'stabilize' team

RIH aims for 10 OBGYNs

Photo: Michael Potestio

A group of people hold signs as part of the third Maternity Matters Kamloops rally for improved maternity care on Saturday, Jan. 3.

Kamloops’ Royal Inland Hospital is aiming to recruit enough obstetrician-gynecologists to fill a total of 10 positions, saying that would be enough to “stabilize” the team in the wake of last year’s mass resignation.

Interior Health has been looking for more physicians since all seven OBGYNs at RIH tendered their resignations in October 2025, saying they were overworked and suffering extreme burnout.

Gerry Desilets, RIH executive director for clinical operations, said the seven doctors are still filling shifts at the hospital and negotiations are ongoing in the hopes they will change their minds and stay long-term.

“We're continuing to work on that and trying to manage the issues and concerns the local team brought forward,” Desilets said.

He said the recruitment situation hasn’t changed much since IH’s last update in December. There are eight physicians at various stages of the recruitment process, and two new OBGYNs will start at the hospital in May.

Desilets said the current goal is to have a total of 10 OBGYNs at Royal Inland.

“If the seven stayed, and then [with] the two new ones, we’d be pretty close to that,” he said.

“I think that 10 would be a sustainable number for the amount of deliveries we see, and the high-risk nature of some of the deliveries we see. I think that would be a pretty good spot for us to really, hopefully, stabilize that team.”

In a joint statement issued days after they handed IH their letter of resignation, the team of seven OBGYNs said they would be resigning with staggered effective dates to protect patients, a transition that was expected to take place over a period of many months.

When asked if there was any timeline for such a transition in place, Desilets said they were “still working through that.”

“I think the big work is, how do we keep them? And if we can keep them, we don't have to have a plan for them to resign and leave,” he said, adding the doctors are continuing to work with RIH to provide care.

“If a couple do decide to leave, then we'll work with them to make sure there's coverage for their clinics and for their patients. So it all depends on where we are — but as I say, we're actively working to try to keep them.”

In the meantime, Desilets said the hospital has been receiving support from locums — doctors travelling from other communities who help fill shifts. He estimated about two thirds of OBGYN shift coverage is from local physicians and one third is from locum doctors, but noted this changes from month to month.

In their letter, the resigning OBGYNs had said they were often covering multiple 24-hour on-call shifts at the hospital each week due to a lack of staff. This meant they ended up working 60 to 80-hour work weeks and spending long stretches of time with no sleep.

Desilets said locum coverage is helping to ease some of the on-call burden so the local OBGYNs aren’t having to shoulder additional shifts on top of their other work.

Locums have also been secured for low-risk maternity care, including people coming from Ontario to support midwifery.

“It is kind of all hands on deck throughout the country trying to help us get through this crisis,” Desilets said.

He said there are “no foreseeable gaps in high-risk care.” There are still some gaps in low-risk shifts through February.

“We're always working to fill it. We haven't had any gaps as of yet — and we haven't had to transfer any people out of our community. So that's that's great news,” he said.

Those who require urgent care for pregnancy-related concerns are advised to still come to the hospital. Information about Kamloops maternity care options can be found here.