Update on Kelowna General Hospital pediatric services

Interior Health (IH) is planning for the return of some pediatric services at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH). Beginning July 13, some services will return including elective pediatric surgeries, diagnostic procedures that require sedation for children and admitting patients to the pediatric unit during daytime hours.

“We are deeply grateful to the care teams who helped maintained pediatric care during this period of reduced pediatric services at KGH,” said Mark Masterson, Interior Health’s vice president, medicine. “Resuming services at Kelowna General Hospital continues to be everyone’s goal and our ability to start that process is indicative of the dedication, coordination, and teamwork happening at the site to support young patients.”

The resumption of pediatric services is expected to reduce the number of pediatric transfers, however, transfers to alternate sites may still be required. When this occurs, IH staff will work with partners at BC Emergency Health Services who support the transport of patients throughout the network of IH Hospitals.

Individuals requiring emergency care for a child should continue to attend KGH where they will be assessed by an emergency room physician.

To date, 22 pediatric patient transfers have occurred to other sites within IH. An additional seven patients were transferred to BC Children’s Hospital, which occurred for reasons outside the pediatric service interruption.

Interior Health has taken significant actions to support the safe and sustainable return of pediatric care at KGH. These efforts continue to focus on short-term and long-term solutions all supported by the collaborative efforts of IH, KGH staff and physicians, Doctors of BC, and the Ministry of Health.

Quick facts about Kelowna General Hospital:

• Over the last five years IH has made significant investments into KGH, including:
• Increasing the total 2025 operating budget to $558 million
• This is a $250 million increase over the last 5 years and an 81 per cent increase since 2020
• We have funded 600 new additional full-time equivalent staff bringing a 30 per cent increase since 2020
• We have provided an additional $278 million in capital investment (2015-2025) including $15.2 million dedicated to services upgrades at KGH for pregnant individuals and infants.
• A high-level summary of service expansion investments includes:
  • Inpatient bed expansion which added 51 new patient beds
  • Hospital at Home – 9 “beds”
  • Two new operating rooms
  • Gynecological Oncology and Colposcopy surgical expansion
  • Expanded to a Tier 4 Neonatal service
  • Expanded Trauma Program
  • Expanded Surgical Eye Care
  • Expanded Brain Health and Endovascular Thrombectomy (EVT) Neurointerventional Services (Stroke Care)