Image Credit: Aaron Schulze/CFJC Today

By Victor Kaisar

ER Closure

Lillooet ER to be closed for 51 hours this weekend; 31st closure of 2025

May 24, 2025 | 8:22 AM

LILLOOET — Residents in Lillooet and area will be without emergency room coverage for 51 hours this weekend.

Interior Health says the ER at the Lillooet Hospital and Health Centre will be closed between 7:00 a.m. Saturday (May 24) and 10:00 a.m. Monday (May 26). It is asking people who need emergency care to head to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops during this time.

At 51 hours, this is the longest ER closure in Lillooet since the end of April, when the facility was unavailable for 37 hours between April 30 and May 2. This is also the 31st closure of the emergency room in Lillooet, 30 of which have come since March.

In total, the emergency room in Lillooet has been unavailable for 770 hours this year.

Earlier this week, Interior Health told CFJC Today that all of the closures this year have been due to a lack of physicians. The health authority also said the closures are expected to begin to end by this fall, following the arrival of four new physicians.

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“We recognize and empathize with the community of Lillooet and hear their concerns about the amount of service interruptions we’ve had at the Lillooet Emergency Department,” Interior Health Executive Director of Clinical Operations, Karen Cooper, said.

“The inability to fill the shift in Lillooet typically has been known quite in advance and so we do get the word out there, but we are still in a place, both within B.C. and Canada, of physician shortages, and so there is not always a person to bring in.”

As has been the case during past emergency room closures in Lillooet and elsewhere, Interior Health said people should call 9-1-1 if they need emergency care, or HealthLink BC at 8-1-1 if they aren’t sure if they need to head to the emergency room.