For the 2nd time in the last two days, the City of Merritt finds itself without emergency medical care.

“Merritt and area residents are advised of temporary changes to emergency department hours at Nicola Valley Hospital due to limited staffing availability,” said Interior Health in a release sent out Sunday.

“From 6 a.m. – 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10, emergency department services will be unavailable and patients can access care at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.”

This comes on the heels of an overnight closure of the hospital overnight on Thursday to Friday morning.

In the wake of that closure, Mayor Mike Goetz said he was going to be speaking with Health Minister Adrian Dix about the shutdown.

“Through these times, hospitals need to be [open], especially when you’re having evacuations, especially when you’re having fires and people are on the move all hours of the day,” said Goetz on Friday.  “We had people coming into our ESS [Emergency Social Services] Center at 12:30, quarter-to-one at night.”

The Sunday closure represents the 11th time the Nicola Valley Hospital has been shut down this year due to a staffing shortage.