VIDEO: ER closures in Merritt gotta stop, but they won't anytime soon

Merritt is just now drawing breath after a rat-a-tat-tat spat of seven emergency room closures in just five weeks at Nicola Valley Hospital.

"We're in the middle of a fairly deep influenza situation," explained Merritt Mayor Michael Goetz.

"So, if a doctor or nurse calls in sick, there's not enough people to staff the ER. So, they close it."

Those are some extenuating circumstances.

However, if the pace of ER closures stays anything close to what it's been so far this year, the number of ER closures in 2025 could easily outstrip the total of 23 closures in all of 2024.

And, 2024 was considered a crisis year for ER closures in Merritt and other smaller communities from Oliver, Quesnel and Chase to Lillooet and Clearwater.

These communities pay Interior Health to provide 24/7 ERs at their hospitals.

Yet, the shortage of just one doctor or one nurse can derail everything and spark an ER closure lasting anywhere from six to 48 hours.

Merritt has doctors and nurses, but sometimes they're sick and can't work or they're taking holiday time.

So, the community also relies on locum doctors and nurses to fill in the gaps.

But that's not really a long-term solution.

And Goetz wants a long-term solution.

But, it's not going to happen overnight or even in the next year or two.

In fact, Goetz calls it a five-year plan.

"We might have to start talking about assigning nurses and doctors to smaller communities like the RCMP does," said Goetz.

"I'm (also) asking the Interior Health Authority to get more involved with us as far as nurse schedules. If we're looking at something 10 days down the road where there might be a problem, we can start working on it now."

When the ER is closed in Merritt, patients needing emergency care are shuttled to the hospitals in either Kamloops or Kelowna by ambulance.

With the ambulance out of town, firefighters have to become the first responders, stretching resources even thinner.

While Merritt has become the poster child for this problem, it speaks to a bigger, engrained crisis.

There's a shortage of doctors and nurses worldwide and it's difficult to attract and retain them anywhere.

High-taxed, first-world jurisdictions like Canada and British Columbia have unacceptable wait times for medical care.

And while there hasn't been a death because of an ER closure in Merritt, there may one day be.

Click here to see Steve MacNaull's full interview with Merritt Mayor Michael Goetz.