BURSTIn an open letter from members of the South Okanagan medical community, Interior Health is being called out for driving away the only neurologists stationed at Penticton Regional Hospital.
The letter lays out how the three neurologists at PRH filed their resignation papers following IH moving to require them to provide expanded after-hours on-call coverage beyond just the South Okanagan, without any increase in compensation.
The three local neurologists will finish their time at the hospital in November and December, with additional neurologists quitting in Kamloops and Vernon.
This is not the first time a mass exodus of specialists has hit an Interior Health run hospital; in 2025, four psychiatrists resigned from working at the Vernon Hospital and seven obstetrician-gynecologists resigned from the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. Also in 2025 was the monthslong closure of the pediatrics ward at Kelowna General Hospital due to a lack of staff, after seven pediatricians resigned and were not replaced in 2023.
The letter from the South Okanagan physicians and neurologists states that there is not opposition to regional collaboration, but that it requires consultation with the phsyicians in order to make a safe and effective plan, and that by IH allegedly ignoring their concerns, the organization failed to understand the realities of the local healthcare system.
In a response to a series of questions from Penticton Western News, including on what will be done to ensure a continuity of care for local residents, Interior Health stated that due to the interregnum for government agencies during the ongoing election, they were unable to comment on anything other than emergency health matters.
IH provided the following statement from Dr. Kirstie McLelland, executive medical director of clinical operations for Interior Health South, as their response:
“Patients presenting to hospital who may require Neurological care are first assessed by emergency physicians, who determine the care and specialist support required based on the patient’s condition. Urgent neurology consultation continues to be available through established regional pathways, including local neurologists where available, and the regional neurology call schedule. Patients also continue to have access to 24/7 stroke care across Interior Health. People should not hesitate to seek out emergency care when needed.”
“Interior Health remains committed to working collaboratively with neurologists across the region in meeting the obligations outlined in the Medical Staff Rules and Bylaws to deliver services that meet the needs of patients and communities.”
The full open letter can be found below:
An Open Letter to the South Okanagan Community: The Future of Neurological Care at Penticton Regional Hospital
Dear South Okanagan Community,
Our community deserves to understand what is happening to neurological services in our region and how decisions made by Interior Health will affect access to specialist neurological care for patients and families throughout the South Okanagan.
For years, our local neurologists have provided essential neurological care close to home. They have cared for patients in the community and in hospital, working alongside family physicians, internists, emergency physicians, and other healthcare professionals to manage complex neurological conditions.
That system is now at risk.
Interior Health recently implemented changes to its regional neurology structure that effectively require our local neurologists to provide after-hours on-call coverage for the entire region, in addition to their existing responsibilities within the South Okanagan. This expanded coverage is uncompensated, and the expectations placed on our local neurologists are unreasonable and unsustainable.
While we recognize the importance of regional collaboration and equitable access to specialist services, the manner in which these changes were implemented has raised serious concerns among the physicians directly responsible for caring for patients in our region.
These concerns were raised before the changes were implemented.
Local family physicians, internists, and emergency physicians who rely on neurological services to care for their patients were not meaningfully involved in the planning process. Concerns about the impact on local services, inpatient care, and an already strained outpatient system were communicated to Interior Health in advance. Despite these warnings, the changes proceeded.
We are now seeing the consequences.
All three of our local neurologists have resigned from their positions at Penticton Regional Hospital following the implementation of the regional program. Neurologists in Vernon and Kamloops have also resigned following these changes.
This represents a significant loss of local specialist capacity across our region and raises serious concerns about the future of neurological care for patients throughout the South Okanagan and beyond.
What does this mean for our community?
1. Loss of in-person inpatient neurological care
Neurological conditions are common among hospitalized patients. Strokes, seizures, movement disorders, neuromuscular conditions, and other complex neurological presentations frequently require specialist assessment and input.
Local family physicians and internists provide essential hospital care for patients with these conditions. Access to local neurological expertise supports clinical decision-making, helps manage complex cases, and allows patients to receive care in their own community hospital rather than being transferred elsewhere.
With the loss of local in-person neurological services, patients who require specialist assessment beyond the capabilities of the local team may need to be transferred to other centres, such as Kelowna or Vancouver.
Transfers take patients away from their families and support networks, create additional demands on hospital resources, and can complicate an already difficult healthcare experience. For patients who are acutely ill, transferring to another centre is not a trivial consequence of reorganizing a service.
The need for neurological care does not disappear when local specialist support is removed.
Instead, the burden shifts to other already stretched healthcare professionals, while patients lose access to expertise that was previously available close to home.
2. Increased pressure on an already strained healthcare system
When specialist support becomes less accessible, the consequences extend far beyond neurology. They affect hospital physicians, emergency departments, primary care providers, and ultimately the patients who depend on these services.
Internists, family physicians, and emergency physicians caring for hospitalized patients rely on specialist consultation to support complex clinical decisions. Without reliable access to local neurological expertise, providing appropriate inpatient care becomes more challenging.
We are concerned that this loss of specialist support will place additional pressure on already strained hospital services and further threaten the sustainability of local inpatient care.
These consequences extend beyond individual patients. They affect our healthcare system’s ability to deliver safe, timely, and appropriate care to the entire community.
3. Reduced access to outpatient neurological care
Our community already faces significant wait times for outpatient neurological consultations. The loss of local hospital neurologists risks further reducing access to specialist assessment, delaying diagnoses, and postponing treatment for patients living with neurological conditions.
For patients experiencing new or progressive symptoms, timely assessment can be essential. Delays can prolong uncertainty, complicate treatment decisions, and potentially affect outcomes.
Patients and families deserve to know how Interior Health intends to maintain access to outpatient neurological services and prevent an already challenging situation from deteriorating further.
4. Greater uncertainty for patients and families
Patients should not have to wonder whether the specialist care they need will be available in their own community. Families should not have to navigate an increasingly fragmented healthcare system to obtain appropriate assessment and treatment.
For people living with serious or life-changing neurological conditions, continuity of care and timely access to specialist expertise matter.
These are not abstract concerns. They affect real people, their families, and the healthcare professionals responsible for their care.
This did not have to happen this way.
We are not opposed to regional collaboration or equitable access to care across Interior Health. We recognize that Interior Health must consider how specialist services are delivered across a large geographic area and how available resources can be used effectively.
However, meaningful consultation with the physicians who work within these systems is not an administrative formality. It is a necessary part of safe and effective healthcare planning.
The family physicians, internists, and emergency physicians who care for South Okanagan patients every day understand the realities of our local healthcare system. Their concerns about the consequences of these changes should have been meaningfully addressed before implementation.
Instead, we are now facing the loss of established local expertise, reduced access to neurological services, and increased pressure on the physicians who remain responsible for caring for our community.
We must ask whether these changes are achieving their intended goals and, equally importantly, what they are costing patients in the South Okanagan.
Our community deserves answers.
Interior Health must be transparent about the impact of these changes and provide a clear, actionable plan to protect neurological services in our region.
That plan must address the loss of local neurologists, the availability of outpatient consultations, and the need for timely, reliable neurological assessment for hospitalized patients. It must also recognize the consequences of transferring patients out of our community for care that was previously available locally.
Interior Health may point to ongoing recruitment efforts to attract neurologists from other provinces and countries. However, recruitment efforts are not a substitute for having physicians in place to provide care.
Our three local neurologists are expected to leave in November/December 2026, and there are currently no replacement neurologists ready to take over their roles.
This leaves our community facing an imminent loss of specialist services without a confirmed solution in place.
Our community deserves a healthcare system that recognizes local needs, listens to the professionals providing care, and makes decisions with patients at the centre.
Our patients should not bear the consequences of decisions made without meaningful consideration of local realities or the concerns raised by those responsible for their care.
We are your family physicians, emergency physicians, internists, and neurologists. We are the physicians who care for you, your children, your parents, and your neighbours. We raised concerns because we understood what was at stake, and we will continue to advocate for our patients and our community.
You deserve access to appropriate, timely, and safe healthcare close to home. We will continue to demand answers, transparency, and accountability from those responsible for decisions that put that care at risk.
Our community deserves better. Our patients deserve better. And we will not stop fighting for them.
Sincerely,
Your South Okanagan internists, family and emergency physicians and neurologists