There is another shutdown of the emergency room at Nicola Valley Hospital in Merritt.
Interior Health says due to an “unexpected physician vacancy,” the Merritt ER will be closed for 24-hours, from 8am this morning to 8 a.m. tomorrow, Feb. 22.
IH originally said this morning that the shutdown – which comes during a snowstorm on the Coquihalla Highway – was due to a lack of nurses. All other in-patient services at the hospital will remain operational but those with emergency medical needs are being told to travel to Kamloops to Royal Inland Hospital.
“[These closures are] becoming really untenable at this point in time. I can’t just sit back and say, ‘oh, well, you know that’s the way it goes,'” Mayor Mike Goetz told NL News.
“I got to say something and I’ve got to stir the pot a little bit, or a lot, to find out. We need some answers. We need an investigating from IH to find out what the real answer, or what the real problem is here and then address that.
There have been six ER closures in Merritt since Dec. 20 of last year, with three of those coming this month alone. One of those February closures was for 13-and-a-half hours this past Friday into Saturday due to a lack of available nurses.
“This is a blue collar town. We have people that work with their hands every single day. We have a lot of seniors here and the last thing we need is our hospital room closed on one of the worst road conditions of the year,” Goetz added.
“You can guarantee that there is going to be somebody who goes sideways on that highway and they’ve going to end up having to need a hospital, and because we’re closed, they’re now going to take an equally bad road to Kelowna.”
Last month, Goetz told NL News he will be chairing the BC Rural Health Alliance which will push for better healthcare coverage in rural areas.
“What I need to start doing is getting a hold of the minster every time its closed and say, ‘hey, its me again. what are we doing about this sort of thing?’,” Goetz added.
“No, we’re not going to sit back and let this just continue on as it is. We just can’t do that. The smaller towns and smaller cities can’t accept that this is the way that it is going to be.”
– With files from Victor Kaisar
EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT SERVICE INTERRUPTION | TUESDAY OVERNIGHT
Nicola Valley Hospital & Health Centre
Due to unexpected limited staff availability, emergency services will be unavailable from Tues, Feb 21 at 8:00am to Wed, Feb 22 at 8:00am. https://t.co/h9Vp9poJka pic.twitter.com/JyO7wCpL6A— City of Merritt (@CityofMerritt) February 21, 2023
