As White Rock’s Peace Arch Hospital deals with its sixth and longest maternity unit diversion this year, doctors are raising concerns over the impact on patients and health-care providers.

The Fraser Health Authority says, due to a gap in obstetrician-gynecologists (OBGYNs), the maternity ward will be closed from Wednesday, March 25, at 8 a.m. until Tuesday, March 31, at 8 a.m.

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President of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of B.C., Dr. Chelsea Elwood, says the province is really struggling with maternity care.

“What I primarily feel bad for is the patients who are being impacted by these diversions,” said Elwood.

“[Patients] will then be seen, triaged, managed, and sent somewhere else. And that results in a direct impact on those patients going out of their communities.”

With diversions, Elwood says the patients’ support systems and loved ones may also be forced to travel at their own cost.

“So, there is a financial burden, emotional burden, social burden around arranging childcare for your existing families, and those things are not accounted for in any diversion.”

Elwood says health-care providers at the units are also affected by diversions.

“It creates an incredible amount of moral distress to know that you’re going into a diversion situation where you don’t have coverage, because you feel a moral obligation to extend your work hours and to put yourself at risk of burning out by providing that coverage. That is what the system has relied on for a number of years and decades,” said Elwood.

“If you don’t address the underlying issues which are driving OBGYNs to struggle, then you’re going to bring in a new workforce back into a difficult work environment….and it will only be a matter of time before they burn out as well.”

Fraser Health issued a warning about the gaps last December, with multiple diversions also impacting Maple Ridge’s Ridge Meadows Hospital.

Elwood says she has yet to see any province-wide approach to maintain staffing.

Premier David Eby recently touted the province’s work to hire health-care professionals from the U.S., with 400 accepting job offers in B.C. between March 2025 and January 2026.

Elwood says it’s inadequate while the province continues to see shortages.

“While hiring individuals who have these skillsets… is intentionally helpful, it still represents less than one per cent of the workforce in the province.”

Elwood says the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of B.C. hasn’t been told if diversions are going to continue and is urging the province to provide a timeline.

“Any information at all would be very helpful for us to not feel this significant moral distress that we all currently have around the diversions throughout the province.”