The weekend shutdown of the Ashcroft Hospital emergency room is taking on extra significance this weekend, due to the wildfire burning near Lytton.

Ashcroft Mayor Barbara Roden says at least 30 of the evacuees from the fire have been shifted this weekend from the emergency gathering center in Lillooet to Cache Creek, which is serviced by the emergency room in Ashcroft.

She suggests this could leave those people, who fled their homes very quickly, without access to immediate medications.

“One of the concerns is this these people have had to evacuate their homes very suddenly, and they could well need emergency medication you know…if their prescription is going to run out, maybe its smoky, they need another inhaler.”

Roden suggests this will ultimately put more pressure on Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, and notes there is a lot of fire season still to come in the region.

“I think this is something that we need to now be in conversation with Interior Health with, to say: What is there in terms of an emergency triage center, or emergency medical access, that we can establish when you have large numbers of evacuees in a certain area.”

Interior Health says the weekend shutdown of Ashcroft’s Emergency Room is due to a lack of a physician.

Ashcroft and area residents are advised the #Ashcroft emergency department will be on diversion for the weekend https://t.co/LbATbdQySl

— Interior Health (@Interior_Health) July 16, 2022