Fraser Health Authority is warning expectant parents of a temporary shortage of obstetrician-gynecologists (OB/GYN) at two local hospitals, meaning patients may be subject to “maternity diversions.”
On select dates over the holiday season, maternity patients who had planned to give birth at Peace Arch or Ridge Meadows hospitals may be directed to other maternity sites in the region.
Dr. Darren Lazare, the health authority’s regional department head for obstetrics and gynecology, says Peace Arch has half as many OB/GYNs as it needs.
“We need a complement of six,” he said
“They have three, as a result of retirement and people moving on.”
Lazare says this particular case was unexpected, but he has seen this problem affecting other sites.
“This is a problem affecting hospitals, not only across the Lower Mainland, but across the province and across the country,” he said.
“We have a shortage of physicians, we have a shortage of midwives, we have a shortage of nurses and across the whole spectrum of healthcare.”
Obstetrics and gynecology are seeing a particularly acute shortage, he says.
In October, 128 OB/GYNs across B.C. penned an open letter warning the province was on the brink of a full-blown crisis in maternity health care. This came after the entire OB/GYN department at Kamloops’ Royal Inland Hospital resigned.
The diversion for Peace Arch started on Dec. 7 at 8 a.m. and is expected to stretch until Dec. 10 at 8 a.m. It isn’t clear when the diversion will take place at Ridge Meadows, but Lazare says all timing is dynamic and subject to change. Fraser Health says the public will be updated as more information becomes available.
Lazare says one physician has been hired and is expected to start working at Peace Arch in spring 2026. Fraser Health says it is actively working to recruit new OB/GYNs for the two hospitals.
“We recruited through Health Match BC, and we also recruit through advertisements in magazines that are OB/GYN-[related], like the…Canadian, American publications in order to attract applicants,” he said.
