Latest news with #DoctorsOfBC
Yahoo
02-08-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
As women face childbirth far from home, B.C. maternity doctors sound alarm
Thirty-six weeks pregnant, and away from her kids and community in a hotel in Prince George, Brittany King is trying to stay calm. The expectant mother is 600 kilometres from her home in Kitimat because the local hospital cannot support the twin babies she will deliver by C-section later this month. Prince George is better than Vancouver — a possibility that was raised earlier in her pregnancy — but it's still far from her support network at one of the most vulnerable times in her life. 'I'm just trying to take it day by day,' said King. 'I'm doing a lot of deep breathing.' In a statement released Friday, the obstetrics and gynecologists section of Doctors of B.C. sounded the alarm about the shortage of maternity specialists in B.C. and the impacts on women and babies whose lives 'depend on a doctor's middle-of-the-night decision-making.' Prince George and Kamloops, where patients were told they may need to be transferred to other hospitals to give birth, are the first B.C. sites to reach critical staffing levels, said the statement. 'There are many other communities around the province whose specialists are also reaching their limits.' Also Friday, Northern Health announced it had found specialist coverage for the Prince George hospital for August and September, eliminating the need to transfer high-risk patients. And while the situation in Kamloops remains the same, with patients not attached to a local maternity care provider potentially being transferred to other hospitals in the region, doctors have been able to cover the gaps, said a statement from Dr. Peter Bosma, executive medical director for Interior Health. 'We ask everyone to present to (Royal Inland Hospital) when needing urgent care, where they will be assessed and the best care plan can be put into place,' he said. 'When possible, a family practitioner with enhanced obstetrical surgical skills will also be available to support deliveries as appropriate within their scope. That was the case over last weekend, and all patients presented were able to deliver their babies locally in Kamloops.' While acute maternity care is most affected by specialist shortages, B.C. women of every age are experiencing limited access and long waitlists to see a specialist, said the statement from the obstetrics and gynecologists section. 'The closures that are making the news are due to the doctors remaining in these communities having to juggle all the competing women's health priorities they are responsible for.' The statement attributed the shortage to 'years of physicians doing everything they can to maintain services and burning themselves out,' as well as 'impossible working environments' that have led to departures. The statement said the obstetrics and gynecologists section has been working with the B.C. government for the past year-and-a-half, but the province's plan to recruit more doctors from the U.S. cannot be the only solution. Dr. Douglas Waterman, a New Westminster gynecologist, said the Ministry of Health needs to look closely at how the shortage developed. 'Providing obstetrical care has become more demanding over the past 20 to 30 years,' Waterman said in a written interview. 'Women are having their children later in their lives. They are also having fewer babies. Therefore, more pregnancies are first-time births, and are more likely to have medical complications. These pregnancies are more likely to need involvement by the obstetrician.' Waterman said during talks with government there was acknowledgment the current method of reimbursement was not working. 'We were starting to work toward an alternate payment plan,' he said. 'Hopefully, this work will continue and reach an appropriate outcome. In the meantime, recruiting new physicians to a system that is not working will not be a long-term solution. They will be subject to the same problems of burnout, job dissatisfaction and leaving.' Waterman said Canada has one of the best records for perinatal outcome in the world. 'That did not happen by chance. We need a well-organized and sustainable system for delivering obstetrical care all around the province. Our mothers and their babies deserve nothing less.' In a statement, the B.C. Ministry of Health said hospitals and the health authorities 'take every step possible to fill gaps in health-care provider coverage to make sure people get the care they need, when they need it.' Health authorities also support families with contingency planning if they need to relocate for a birth. The statement emphasized the work the ministry is doing to recruit doctors from the U.S. and other countries by streamlining credential recognition. 'Many health professionals have expressed interest in making the move to B.C.,' it said. Nicole Penner, expecting her fourth baby in a few weeks, is scrambling to figure out where to go to deliver her baby. Last time, she gave birth a few minutes after entering the doors of the Prince George hospital. At her last appointment, her midwife told her she would need to go to Quesnel or Vanderhoof, more than an hour's drive away. On Friday, after Northern Health announced it had found specialist coverage for August and September, Penner was even more confused about where to go. 'I'm scared,' she said. 'Do I call the hospital, or do I start driving to Vanderhoof? When you're in labour, you can't think. It's the only thing on your mind. I can't figure out where to go and who will take care of my kids. What if my labour is short? What if I don't make it to the hospital on time?' For Brittany King, facing childbirth far from home regardless of the situation in Prince George, there are no easy answers. The family has started a GoFundMe to help with expenses. 'It sucks. What else can I say?' gluymes@ Related 'Something fundamentally wrong': More disruptions hit maternity care in Kamloops, Prince George Conservative bill on prenatal and postnatal care in B.C. a rare opportunity for bipartisan co-operation Surrey nurse on maternity leave donates breast milk to help tiniest patients
CTV News
21-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Why one U.S. doctor is moving to Vancouver Island
Dr. Muthana Yacoub has been working as a family physician in Woodland Park, Colo., for six years now. But by November, he will be practising medicine in Colwood, B.C. 'We finally visited this past weekend and we absolutely fell in love with it,' Yacoub said. He'll work at a unique, city-owned clinic, which has recruited four doctors from the U.S., the U.K. and other parts of Canada. Yacoub, who spent part of his childhood living in Toronto, already had Canadian citizenship. He heard about the new Vancouver Island clinic while attending a medical conference in Vancouver last November, and was ready for change. 'You do see this pressure from insurance companies where you feel like you're just kind of catering to their whims and those whims change every six months,' he explained. 'It can be extremely frustrating, because you know what you want to do for the patient, what the right thing to do for the patient is, but you have no efficacy in actually getting that done.' The Ministry of Health is hoping more U.S. doctors feel the same as Yacoub. The province recently began a $5-million recruitment campaign running ads in Washington State, Oregon and parts of California. This week, a branded truck was giving out free coffee to health-care workers in Seattle. 'Doctors of BC supports all efforts to address the province's health workforce challenges,' said Dr. Charlene Lui, the organization's president. 'It's so important to improve timely and quality access to care for our patients.' Lui said Doctors of BC is willing to work with the Ministry of Health and other key partners to 'explore solutions for this very complex issue, including integrating foreign-trained physicians not only from the U.S., but around the globe.' She said they are exploring questions around licensing with stakeholders. The ministry said more than 1,600 health-care providers have expressed an interest in moving to our province. However, despite requests from CTV News, the ministry did not provide any numbers on how many doctors and nurses had actually committed to making the move. In a statement, the ministry said: 'Steps are being taken to get those interested to B.C., but this is a process that takes time.''We are also working with our federal partners on the immigration front,' the statement added. Yacoub said he thinks the biggest barrier for workers coming from the U.S. is 'the concept of moving to a different country and the whole licensing situation.' He also pointed out that America is facing its own family doctor shortage, particularly in rural areas. He said despite flaws in B.C.'s health-care system, he believes it's a much better system than the one he is currently working in. 'Even the poorest among us can get care if they need it, whereas here (in the U.S.), it's a coin toss. They may not get their care at all,' he said, adding that someone should not face bankruptcy to get medical treatment. Yacoub said Colwood has been very welcoming and he can't wait to make B.C. home. 'From the bottom of my heart, thank you,' he said.
CTV News
31-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
OB/GYNs warn of looming crisis in maternity ward at Kelowna General Hospital
Nine doctors who work in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Kelowna General Hospital are warning because of a lack of family physicians who can deliver babies, the region faces the collapse of primary maternity care coverage as early as June 1. In a news release, the nine OB/GYNs, who provide specialized care for high-risk pregnancies and emergency services at the hospital, say they're also being asked to cover low-risk labour deliveries, which are normally covered by family doctors and midwives. 'If a low-risk patient is delivering and something high-risk or emergency comes along where the obstetrician is urgently needed, they can't be in two places at once. So it causes some serious concerns around delivering quality patient care and safety,' said Dr. Charlene Lui, the president of Doctors of B.C. The news release says it puts the OB/GYNs in a position where they will have to choose which patient to care for first, which could result in permanent harm to mother or baby. 'These doctors are sounding the alarm because somebody is going to get hurt, somebody is going to die,' said Gavin Dew, the B.C. Conservative MLA for Kelowna-Mission. 'It has gone on for far too long. These smart, talented and trained frontline professionals have not been heard.' The warning about a looming crisis in the maternity ward at Kelowna General comes on the heels of the pediatric unit announcing it will close for six weeks because of a shortage of pediatricians. 'Kelowna at the moment is really seeing some enhanced challenges compared to other regions of the province and the country,' said Lui. 'This is in every parent WhatsApp group in Kelowna and in the Okanagan. Everyone is talking about this, everyone is scared by this, everyone is angry about this,' said Dew. 'We obviously need appropriate staffing levels. We obviously need operational changes. But the most important thing that needs to happen is that government needs to start listening to the frontline medical professionals who are the boots on the ground dealing with this crisis,' he added. 'We do have concerns that Interior Health is downplaying how serious these issues are and how they can negatively affect patients in the community and the physicians working in the hospital,' said Lui. CTV News reached out to Interior Health for comment but did not hear back by deadline. This article will be updated if a response is received.
