File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

HOSPITAL STAFFING

Kamloops MLA Milobar proposes idea to help with regional hospital closures

Mar 7, 2025 | 5:26 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Nicola Valley Hospital’s emergency room has been closed seven times in the past two weeks and eight total times so far in 2025. That follows approximately 40 closures over the past two years for the Merritt community.

With hospital emergency room closures all too common for communities around Kamloops, MLA Peter Milobar proposed a possible solution this week in the B.C. legislature.

“I’ll give the government a suggestion. Tthey are free to use it. How about you sit down with the nurses and you have one nurse designated every shift who says they will travel to Merritt if Merritt is short a nursing shift. Pay them a premium if you have to be that designated person 24-hours-a-day,” said Milobar.

Milobar noted when ERs go down in the region, patients are sent to Kamloops, putting the pressure on Royal Inland Hospital.

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“Because the larger hospital can usually withstand one more nurse being away, Merritt can’t, and as a result they close, which puts pressure on Kamloops anyway,” said Milobar. “Couldn’t you do that with one of your hospitalists, as well? And have people in the larger centres getting a slight bump in pay to travel on no notice to basically go to the nearest hospital that is going to be closing?”

While seemingly simple on paper, Health Minister Josie Osborne said it’s not that easy of a solution but the conversations are ongoing around the broader idea.

“There have been a number of steps already taken around pay and around incentives and we do provide those, but that is not enough — and it’s not alone what physicians, nurses and others are looking for. I think there is some creative thinking out there and I think we are going to be able to have some good discussions,” Osborne told CFJC Today.

The province has been working to bring more medical professionals to B.C., highlighted by changes to international credentials.

“We have had about 900 international medical graduates (arrive), for example, over the past couple of years. And we are still doing more work with the College of Physicians and Surgeons to make sure doctors, for example, who come from other places in Canada can get their provisional licenses immediately,” said Osborne.

While work continues behind the scenes, the story goes beyond Merritt, to Clearwater, 100 Mile House and Lillooet.

“How about this — instead of asking people who are sick and injured and needing emergent care to drive two hours and multiple people doing that, we send one nurse the other way for two hours and keep the ER open? Or we send one doctor the other way for two hours and keep the ER open?” said Milobar.