November 24, 2025
SHARE
CANADALAND
#1268 Every OBGYN in this Canadian City has Resigned
“ Our concern is that we will see maternal or fetal death as a result of a lack of access to care in Kamloops.” -Alix Dolson
Bruce Thorson
Senior Producer
Tristan Capacchione
Audio Editor & Technical Producer
Jesse Brown
Host & Publisher
max collins
Director of Audio

In October, seven OBGYNs at a Kamloops, B.C. hospital signed a letter of resignation. Those seven were the only OBGYNs in the city.

We’re used to bad headlines about Canada’s healthcare system. Lack of family doctors, emergency room wait times, delayed procedures, but this was different. Mass resignation threatening an entire branch of treatment for the whole city. 

The letter of resignation is effectively a protest, a warning. The physicians who signed it say their workload is untenable and is placing patients at risk. The resignations will be staggered over the coming months and the provincial government is taking a variety of steps to deal with the fallout. Including offering temporary replacement doctors over $7000 a day to take shifts in Kamloops. 

Kristen Holliday is the regional editor for Castanet News in Kamloops. She joins us today to unpack the mass resignation.

 

Host: Bruce Thorson

Credits: Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor & Technical Producer), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor and Publisher)

Featured Guest: Kristen Holliday

 

Fact checking by Julian Abraham

Additional music by Audio Network

 

More information:

 

Sponsors: 

CAMH 

Douglas: Douglas is giving our listeners a FREE Sleep Bundle with each mattress purchase. Get the sheets, pillows, mattress and pillow protectors FREE with your Douglas purchase today.  Visit https://douglas.ca/canadaland to claim this offer.

 

Can’t get enough Canadaland? Follow @Canadaland_Podcasts on Instagram for clips, announcements, explainers and more.

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

More from this series
Someone thinks we should buy time on AM radio. Also, Alberta is Calling, quite literally, and they want a show.
December 4, 2025
“This idea of ‘gamblification,’ they're actually tracing features found in casino games that are being reproduced in games for little children.” - Sarah Grimes, professor in communication studies and the Wolf Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill
December 1, 2025
“ Our concern is that we will see maternal or fetal death as a result of a lack of access to care in Kamloops.” -Alix Dolson
November 24, 2025
“This has been the most challenging couple years of my life as a broadcaster, maybe as a person too.” -Jesse Brown
November 17, 2025
We don't seem to question, at least not in the public discourse, what it means that the same investment firm is enmeshed with so many of our media companies. -Gemma Boothroyd
November 10, 2025
You’re an expert in something, so tell us what the media always gets wrong about your favourite thing.
November 6, 2025
“Just stop having this vibes based pump and dump hype economy and start paying attention to foundations and to human thriving.” -Cory Doctorow
November 3, 2025
“ The problem with saying who's gonna rule the fucking world is that there's someone else already claiming that title and they don't like the competition.” -Ian Thornton
October 27, 2025
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND