An independent review commissioned by Interior Health (IH) has concluded that the pediatric service disruption at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) in 2025 was years in the making.
The 16-page report, conducted by Harbour West Consulting, acknowledged physicians had been sounding the alarm about things such as growing workload pressures for years.
“It’s quite vindicating to see the exact concerns that we had raised last year come out and be confirmed,” said Conservative MLA for Kelowna – Mission Gavin Dew.
The report says that physicians warned IH of a potential crisis, expressing to the health authority, “Without structural and relational improvements, future service disruptions remain a significant risk.”
In May 2025, the pediatric ward closed and remained shut down for seven weeks.
The review found that reduced trust and deteriorating relations between physicians and Interior Health contributed to a wave of pediatrician resignations, seven in 2023 alone.
It ultimately left the department unable to sustain services.
The report states, “Sustainability is constrained by relational challenges… and a reliance on goodwill to ensure service delivery.”
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“I think it showed that there was an opportunity for Interior Health to have proactively addressed the problems…at the time the doctors raised the concerns, rather than when it hit the crisis point,” said Dr. Adam Thompson, president of Doctors of B.C., when asked what his main takeaway from the report is.
BC’s health minister wouldn’t comment on the report, directing Global News to IH instead, but no one from the organization was available Monday to answer questions.
In a news release last week, the health authority stated it is focused on rebuilding trust and improving communication between hospital doctors and leadership as well as strengthening how issues are escalated and managed.
IH’s president and CEO, Sylvia Weir, stated, “I have been focused on changing how we listen and engage across IH—supporting a culture grounded in open, two way communication, accountability and respect.”
“We’re pleased to see that Interior Health have outlined some proactive measures that they’re going to take to address some of that dysfunction, put in place those policies and rebuild trust that, you know, have been outlined in the independent review,” Thompson said.
“We’ll have to wait and see.”
Dew said he believes a lot more work is needed to effectively address the problems right across the health region and various departments.
“I’m still hearing from whistleblowers every week reporting new issues that continue to plague Interior Health,” Dew said.
“So, there is still a culture problem, there is still an organizational problem and there is still a serious need for improvement in Interior Health.”
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