Four B.C. hospitals have temporarily paused emergency services due to limited staffing this weekend.
In separate news releases, the Interior Health authority said Nicola Valley, Lillooet, Cariboo Memorial and South Okanagan hospitals have temporarily paused — or will continue to pause — emergency department service due to limited availability of doctors and nurses.
All four hospitals serve rural regions of the province, where residents may be a several hours’ drive from emergency care. Their pauses are just the latest in a years-long string of emergency room closures in rural B.C. due to staffing shortages.
“Some of those emergency rooms, you might face a note on the door saying facility closed, head to [another] location,” said Paul Adams, executive director of the B.C. Rural Health Network, in an interview.
“It’s just a tragedy what’s happening to our emergency medical system and our primary care within rural B.C.”
CBC News reached out to Interior Health for comment, but it has not yet responded.
Cariboo Memorial Hospital, in the city of Williams Lake, B.C., closed its emergency department from 5:30 p.m. PT on Friday until 7:30 a.m. on Saturday. On Sunday, it was closed a second time at 5:30 p.m., and is scheduled to re-open at 7:30 a.m. Monday.
Adams said Williams Lake is an important healthcare centre for the surrounding region.
“[Emergency room closures] double the distance for a lot of people who are living on the fringes of those communities,” he said. “The distance between communities is enormous, so everything compounds and you get a really high risk of injury and death to people.”
South Okanagan General Hospital, near Oliver, B.C., closed its emergency department from 9 p.m. PT on Friday until 7 a.m. on Saturday.
As of April 1, the province is offering nurses signing bonuses in the hopes of bringing much-needed help to the struggling health-care sector in rural areas.
Lillooet Hospital, about 175 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, closed its emergency department from 6 a.m. PT on Sunday until 8 a.m. on Monday. In the news release, Interior Health said patients needing emergency care can access services at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, about 110 kilometres east.
Nicola Valley Hospital, near the town of Merritt B.C., closed its emergency department from from 8 a.m. PT on Sunday. It is scheduled to stay closed until 8 a.m. on Tuesday. Interior Health also redirected patients to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, which is located about 85 kilometres away.
Hospitals in B.C.’s smaller centres are familiar with such closures. In March, Prince Rupert Regional Hospital closed its emergency room for eight hours. In September 2023, South Okanagan General Hospital was closed for 24 hours over the Labour Day weekend and again that Monday.
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.
Over 2023, the Nicola Valley Hospital saw more than ten 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 May, the B.C. government budgeted $155.7 million in funding to encourage health-care staff to head to rural communities. It expanded its rural incentive program, which offers up to $8,000 to health-care workers in rural areas, to 74 locations — up from 18.
Still, Adams said rural hospitals can’t attract enough doctors and nurses to keep emergency rooms staffed around the clock.
“Somebody needs to look at the the situation from a different perspective and start investing more heavily into retention and keeping people within communities,” he said. “We can’t do that community by community. We have to make a system wide change.”