B.C. OB/GYNs warn government of ‘looming maternity crisis’
Posted October 28, 2025 4:12 pm.
Last Updated October 29, 2025 10:45 am.
More than 100 obstetricians and gynecologists (OB/GYN) in B.C. are standing in solidarity with their colleagues who have resigned from Interior Health due to frustrations with the provincial government.
The 128 B.C. OB/GYNs penned a letter in which they warn that the province is on the brink of a full-blown crisis in maternity health care.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!Earlier this October, the entire OB/GYN department resigned at Kamloops’ Royal Inland Hospital. The regional health authority says that the OB/GYNs resigned for personal reasons.
However, the letter that was published on Tuesday says that the doctors quit because their concerns about maternity care and gynecology services did not elicit any reaction from Interior Health or from the government.
The letter says that OB/GYNs have been raising alarms on this looming crisis for months, but have been dismissed repeatedly.
They criticize “untenable and unsafe working conditions” and a “lack of meaningful response from the health authority and government.”
The letter’s authors explain that the doctors’ resignation “is a last resort, a step no physician takes lightly.”
The resignations have led to a difficult situation for many pregnant women in the Kamloops area.
“The uncertainty of not knowing if you have the support to be able to have your baby in your hometown is really unsettling,” said Dr. Chelsea Elwood, the vice president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists BC.
Elwood, who also wrote the letter, says the problems have been going on for years, and nothing has been done to mitigate the crises.
“We have been backfilling for a very long time to keep the system afloat and reaching unsustainable, unsafe work practices, which finally led to these things coming to the forefront,” Elwood told 1130 NewsRadio.
“We are seeing people relocate in order to be able to deliver the site that has better coverage. That includes both personal, social, and financial costs as well.”
In the letter, she says that “OB/GYNs are undervalued, so too are women and their health across B.C.”
Elwood explicitly calls out the short-sighted practice of filling gaps in the physicians’ schedules with locum physicians who only provide temporary services.
The letter mentions that Inland Health announced plans to hire 12 new OB/GYNs.
However, she criticizes non-transparent communications around onboarding and training in an already strained working environment.
“There are serious concerns about who will supervise and support these new recruits – particularly if they are internationally trained,” Elwood said in the letter.
Conservative MLA calls out Health Minister Josie Osborne
The doctors accuse the health authority and government of a “reactive approach” rather than finding “a sustainable solution” with the current OB/GYNs.
Elwood adds that the crisis goes beyond the shortages in maternity care, as many gynecologists are also backlogged with cancer surgery. “Our wait times are more than 12 to 18 months on average in many sites”, she explained.
During a question period in B.C.’s Legislative Assembly, Conservative MLA Trevor Halford called out Health Minister Josie Osborne on the walkout of the OB/GYNs in Kamloops.
Osborne responded that the government invests in the public universal healthcare system to build more hospitals and care centres.
“We will choose to build the road to recovery. We will choose to expand that across every health authority in this area. We will choose to build more, to add more family physicians to our rosters,” she said.
The 128 OB/GYNs who signed the letter are about half the entire workforce in all of B.C., yet some of those physicians do only provide one or the other medical service.
With files from Srushti Gangdev.
