The Mayor of Merritt is suggesting the travelling public in the Interior is being threatened by yet another shutdown of his community’s emergency medical services — the third time in less-than a month.
The day-long shutdown of the Emergency Room at Nicola Valley Hospital in Merritt on Monday and into Tuesday is due to a lack of available doctors.
The previous shutdown on January 7th — according to Interior Health — was a lack of nurses.
A shutdown on December 20th was due to a lack of physicians, according to I-H.
Mayor Mike Goetz says with Merritt being at the intersection of three highways, including the Coquihalla, not only is the community of over 7 thousand without emergency medical options, so too is the travelling public.
He suggests officials with Interior Health aren’t providing much solace either.
“Basically, what they tell us is the same thing, is that you’re not the only community, and we’re doing the best that we can,” said Goetz. “We ask them if they can do better, and we kind of get a blank stare.”
Goetz points to the Christmas Eve bus crash on the Okanagan Connector near Merritt which left 4 dead and around 50 others hurt as an example of why his community needs a fully functioning hospital.
While the Nicola Valley Hospital’s ER was open that evening, the scope of the disaster forced patients into Emergency Rooms in Penticton, Kelowna and Kamloops.
Goetz says as the health care staffing shortages in small Interior communities continues, he is hoping to create a coalition of local leaders to advocate for help.
“One of my main goals is to start dealing with the smaller communities, such as Ashcroft, Cache Creek and possibly Princeton — everywhere that’s going through that — and then join together as one group of mayor and council in a joint group to talk to the [Health] Minister,” said Goetz. “If you have several town demanding the same thing, maybe we can get some traction.”
The Nicola Valley Hospital’s Emergency Room is scheduled to reopen at 8am on Tuesday.