5 emergency rooms close in Interior B.C. over long weekend

Emergency rooms at five Interior B.C. hospitals were closed over the long weekend due to staffing shortages.

In separate news releases, Interior Health Authority announced that 100 Mile District, Nicola Valley, Lillooet, Cariboo Memorial and South Okanagan hospitals all temporarily paused emergency department services due to "limited physician availability."

While most of them have since resumed emergency services, Nicola Valley Hospital's emergency room is scheduled to reopen on Monday morning.

These closures are just the latest in a series of disruptions to emergency care across B.C. It's a trend that Williams Lake Coun. Scott Nelson says has been increasingly getting "worrisome."

"Instead of [the Interior Health] posting when they're closing, how about they just post when they're open," said Nelson. 

He said the closure of emergency services at both 100 Mile House and Williams Lake forced residents to travel to neighbouring communities like Quesnel.

"There are 10 to 15,000 people that don't have a doctor [in our region], so they rely on the emergency department for services."

According to Interior Health, there were 28 service interruptions across the region this July alone — 10 of which were at Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake.

In 2022, emergency rooms at 13 rural B.C. hospitals — including South Okanagan, Lillooet and Nicola Valley hospitals — were closed for approximately four months, combined.

Last year, the Nicola Valley Hospital saw more than 10 emergency room closures due to staffing shortages. Merritt residents held several rallies protesting the closures and calling for the B.C. government to better staff the hospital. 

In a previous interview with CBC News, Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz said its ER has been closed 24 times in 2023 and 2024 — with costs being borne by the municipality each time. In response, he sent the province a bill for over $100,000.

The Ministry of Health acknowledged the challenges but emphasized that emergency departments are only closed as a last resort. 

"We are in the midst of a challenging summer and peak holiday season," the ministry stated in a statement to CBC on Sunday. "Our site and health authority staff are working hard to fill shifts every day, and we are going to keep fighting to keep EDs open."

The ministry also pointed to broader efforts to address health-care worker shortages across the province, noting that over 45,000 health-care workers have been added since 2017 and that a nearly $1-billion Health Human Resources Strategy was launched in 2022.