B.C.’s Health Minister is optimistic about the future of the Thompson Region Family Obstetrics clinic in Kamloops – the City’s largest maternity clinic – which is set to close this summer.

“We’ve been working very closely with the doctors and others working in maternity in Kamloops,” Adrian Dix said Thursday, when asked about the facility – located inside Royal Inland Hospital – which is not accepting any patients with an expected due date past July 31.

“We are very positive that there will be a solution to that worked out in advance of the closure you’re talking about.”

In announcing plans to potentially shutter the clinic this summer, TRFO Doctor Shaun Davis told NL News that doctor recruitment for obstetrics in Kamloops has been an ongoing problem for years.

“Basically since October we’ve been at critically low levels of physician shortages,” Davis said in February. “So the long standing issue in maternity care throughout the province is that the number of physicians that are doing family practiced based obstetrics is gradually declining.”

“We used to have 23 in the community back in early 2000 and we have now dropped down to, outside of the Chairfolk clinic, there’s really only at most three providers.”

The TRFO has a core team of five physicians, two registered midwives, medical office assistants, and a registered nurse. It serves between 500 and 600 families per year, with approximately 50 to 60 deliveries each month.

Patients are referred to the TRFO clinic, which has served as a safety net in recent years for pregnant women who do not have a family doctor.

The impending closure forced Kamloops-woman Amanda Yaschuk to start a petition, calling on the Ministry of Health and Interior Health to find a solution to keep the clinic open past July.

“This is important as many families don’t have [General Practitioners] and are on never ending waitlists,” Yaschuk said. “Most family doctors don’t do deliveries anymore and refer to other clinics and services. Kamloops has limited midwives and OBGYNs and they’re often full before you find out you’re pregnant. This clinic also supports neighbouring townships and cities – this isn’t just for Kamloops.”

She is calling on people to keep up the pressure on the issue until such time there is a solution to keep the doors open.

“What stands out the most is that Interior Health is working to secure a funding contract and that these contracts can take time to come to an agreement,” Yaschuk said, in an April 9 update.

“The pressure and attention on this issue is helping to expedite things but there is no formal agreement or quick fix to the staffing issues – we need to keep the pressure on until we have answers.”

Yashcuk also noted that Interior Health is directing people with due dates past July 31 to other resources in Kamloops, in the event the clinic is not reopened.

“This includes the Kamloops Urgent Primary Care and Learning Centre and the Royal Inland Hospital Emergency Department,” an Interior Health reply shared by Yaschuk said.

“If possible, we recommend patients to reach out to their family doctors or nurse practitioners. For unattached pregnant patients, we recommend using the Kamloops Primary Care Waitlist Priority Access Referral process to expedite attachment to a primary care provider.”

Davis told NL News in February that the clinic could reopen in the future if more care providers choose to come to Kamloops.

“This has happened before where we’ve had to temporarily close our doors cause of staffing shortages and if we can get staffing it gives us the opportunity to reopen,” Davis added, pointing to a short closure back in 2019 when a number of physicians retired.

“Maybe that will be in a step wise approach where we say we have got some coverage to get us through August and then maybe we open August due dates and then maybe we can get more coverage and get through September.”

“I mean in a perfect world we would get new staff that want to stay and commit to working in the clinic and then we’d be able to open back up to full capacity,” Davis added.