The mayor of a town in B.C.'s Fraser Canyon says the health of its citizens is in jeopardy because staff shortages have left the town without a family or emergency physician.
Both Lytton's health care centre and emergency room are in the midst of a six-day shutdown because its only ER doctor left the area until Aug. 18.
That means the town's 3,000 residents must drive to Lillooet (45 minutes), Hope (90 minutes), or Kelowna (up to two hours), to access treatment.
"I'm concerned that people expect that service to be here and they show up at the door with major trauma and all of a sudden they realize it's two hours before they can get attention," Mayor Jessica Lightfoot told CTV News.
Area resident Bert Larose, who recently had a roof collapse on his back, describes the situation as troubling.
"I was worried about never being able to walk again and I'm being bounced down a bloody highway...the worst highway in B.C. in the back of a lumber wagon," he said.
Interior health officials told CTV News it's not always easy to find a locum, or temporary doctor, to replace the doctors who staff rural facilities like Lytton's. The agency said it continues to look for a second physician for the town.
New Democrat MLA Harry Lali says the needs of B.C.'s smaller communities are being ignored.
"Rural British Columbia is being deliberately being abandoned by this Liberal government," he said.
Lali said the Liberals have created the problem by cutting funding in smaller communities and centralizing even simple medical procedures.
"All of those services have been pulled out of smaller communities to Kelowna and Kamloops and Abbotsford… and all of these regional hospitals, so healthcare professionals can't practice their trade in a small community."
With the forest industry in a slump, the problems at the health centre are making it even more difficult to build the economy in Lytton. There are fears that one day the town will lose its health centre and emergency room permanently.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Kent Molgat
