The Mayor of Merritt says he’s looking for more information from Interior Health in the wake of yet another extended closure of his community’s emergency room, while also suggesting he has insider details of plans by the Health Authority to potentially shut down his community’s only emergency room more than 30 times through October to the end of 2024.

The Merritt ER was closed starting Sunday night and they did not reopen until 8:00 Tuesday morning.

A lack of doctors had originally prompted Interior Health to close down the Nicola Valley Hospital emergency room from Sunday into Monday.

However, a continuing lack of doctors forced I-H to extend that closure.

Mike Goetz says while the weekend shutdown of the Nicola Valley Hospital ER didn’t come as a big surprise, given staffing challenges during long-weekends, he says he’s concerned the 48 hour closure is just the beginning.

While he’s not heard anything official from Interior Health, Goetz says he does have whistleblower information suggesting over 30 more closures — at least 24-hours long — are expected to hit his local ER before the year is out.

“We do have people who work on the inside that are concerned about the way the hospital situation is going. so they do give us information, because they’re very unhappy with the way that a health system is going. and they’re also giving us a warning,” said Goetz.

Goetz says whistle-blower information his administration has received from an anonymous source within Interior Health shows the health authority anticipates at least 30 more ER shutdowns at the Nicola Valley Hospital to the end of this year.

“The whole idea that these are two hour shutdowns with no notice is absolute garbage,” contended Goetz.  “We know well in advance when these are happening. these are planned shutdowns.”

This weekend’s shutdown of the Merritt ER was due to a lack of an available physician.

The predicted shut downs include six more this month, 11 in November and 14 through December.

Those dates:
Oct 2, 4, 7, 8, 13, 20, 21
Nov. 1, 2, 3, 10, 15, 16, 18, 22, 24, 29, 30
Dec. 1, 7, 13, 14, 15, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30