The CEO at Interior Health says the health authority is focusing on recruiting staff for rural hospitals.

Susan Brown was asked after staffing shortages forced the Ashcroft Hospital’s emergency room to be closed temporarily five times in the past eight months. During those closures, or on weekdays when the hospital’s ER is closed, people with medical emergencies in the Ashcroft area need to travel to hospitals in Kamloops, Merritt, Lytton or 100 Mile House, as explained by the village’s mayor Barbara Roden.

ERs in other rural hospitals across the health region, such as Barriere and Oliver, have also seen short-term closures due to a lack of staff in recent months.

“We’re doing everything we can to attract people to our region. And that is a true partnership with the communities themselves, because they also help attract people to the area,” Brown says.

“In some areas, we’ve partnered with the communities to create housing, because sometimes it’s hard for people to even rent a house. So we’re trying to identify practical ways that make it easy for people to go to those jobs if they want to.”

Brown say she was at a patient quality forum in Vancouver last week, and says IH had a recruitment booth set up.