The emergency department at the Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital in Clearwater will be closed for the third time in less than a month because of a lack of nurses.

Interior Health says this latest closure will begin at 6 p.m. today, June 15, with the emergency department scheduled to reopen at 7 p.m. tomorrow, June 16.

At 25 hours, it is the longest of the three closures this year, with the other two lasting 13 hours each.

While all other services in Clearwater will continue as normal, people in Clearwater who are in need of emergency care are being told to head to Kamloops or 100 Mile House.

This closure comes days after Clearwater mayor Merlin Blackwell said he was bracing for a tough couple of months, noting the nursing situation in Clearwater “has been held together with medical tape and tenacity for quite a while.”

“You can only Band-Aid and stopgap and agency nurse and whatever else you want to call those positions for so long before you run our of options, you run out of favours, and you run out of people to call,” Blackwell said, noting the nursing situation appears to have reached a breaking point – like it did in 2022 – as fatigue creeps in.

Interior Health’s Executive Director of Clinical Operations for the Thompson-Cariboo, Karen Cooper, told Radio NL they need to fill a “handful” of vacancies in Clearwater to get to a situation where emergency room closures won’t be necessary.

“Part of the driver of shortages is, of course, it’s the prime time of year when our staff want to take their vacations, and potentially are less likely to pick up the call-outs,” Cooper said.

“[We are] working very hard with our provincial partners on increasing the amount of [travel nurse] agencies that are on our list for approval to use, as well as a provincial strategy to have these rapid deployment teams.”

As has been the case during past emergency room closures, people in Clearwater who need life-saving emergency care are being told to call 9-1-1.

People who aren’t sure if they need to head to the emergency room are being told to contact HealthLink BC.”