48-hour emergency room closure in Merritt due to staff shortage

Nicola Valley Hospital and Health Care Centre in Merritt, B.C., is seen in this photo from the Interior Health website.

Physician shortages have forced a 48-hour closure of the emergency room in Merritt, B.C., according to Interior Health.

At Nicola Valley Hospital, emergency care will be “unavailable” until Tuesday at 8 a.m. Patients are being told to go to Kamloops’ Royal Inland Hospital, which is roughly an hour’s drive away.

“People in the community who need life-threatening emergency care (i.e., chest pains, difficulty breathing, severe bleeding) should always call 911 for transport to the nearest available and appropriate facility,” the bulletin from the health authority says.

Nicola Valley Hospital saw more than a dozen temporary closures of its emergency room last year, most of them attributed to "limited physician availability" or other staffing shortages.

The situation was so bad that Merritt Mayor Michael Goetz said he planned to withhold health-care payments to the province over lack of reliable service. He encouraged other local leaders to do the same.

Other emergency rooms in the vast region also saw closures over the weekend. Lillooet Hospital’s ER was closed Sunday, and won’t reopen until Monday at 8 a.m. Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake was closed overnight Thursday, Friday and Saturday and the South Okanagan General Hospital was closed overnight Friday.

The weekend closures come as heat warning are in effect across the province. In B.C.’s southern Interior, where Merritt is located, temperatures are expected to reach the high 30s or low 40s, according to Environment Canada.

“Local medical health officers expect an increase in health and safety risks from heat and are advising the public to take precautions,” the warning from the weather agency says.