File Photo (Image Credit: Interior Health)

By Michael Reeve

MERRITT ER CLOSED

‘Centralization hasn’t helped at all’: Merritt mayor working with Interior Health after sixth ER closure this year

Mar 10, 2023 | 1:30 PM

MERRITT — Merritt residents are without their emergency department Friday (March 10) as the Nicola Valley Hospital is closed until Saturday morning. It’s the eighth time since Christmas and the sixth time this calendar year that the hospital has been forced to close the ER.

As the problem mounts in the community, Mayor Mike Goetz has been working the phones, speaking to Interior Health on an almost-daily basis. He was quick to warn that this can’t become the norm in Merritt, and residents can’t become complacent with a lack of emergency care.

“What is happening here is the fact that unless we get this straightened out it’s going to effect our economic development in this community,” said Goetz. “Because not a lot of people are going to want to come and invest here and live here with a hospital that can not be open full-time, on one of the busiest highways in Canada or very close to it. We are working hand-in-hand, every time this happens I call the Interior Health Authority, the executive director, we go through why, we go through what can happen to make this not happen.”

While he was unable to speak to specifics due to privacy concerns, Goetz did note that there are a few ‘irons in the fire’ and he believes they are moving towards a solution.

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However, the mayor stated more closures could be forthcoming before a solution is implemented.

“We were warned about this. We were warned by baby-boomer doctors that they were aging out, nurses were aging out. They were very vocal about the fact that we could run into exactly what we are into now,” said Goetz. “Centralization hasn’t help at all. Centralization has not helped this community. It helps the communities that have the centralized hospitals such as Kamloops, Kelowna, Vancouver. But, the smaller communities that have to rely on it, it doesn’t do us well.”