100 Mile House District General Hospital (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

HEALTHCARE CHALLENGES

District of 100 Mile House proposes short-term solution to healthcare challenges, looks for provincial support

Jan 6, 2026 | 4:33 PM

100 MILE HOUSE, B.C. — Last year, the emergency department at the 100 Mile House District General Hospital was closed on 28 separate occasions, totalling nearly 16 full days of no emergency services in the community. Through the first week of 2026, the ER has already been shuttered twice due to physician shortages. Despite the challenges and abundance of recent closures, the district says there is increased stability ahead.

It’s a long trip to Williams Lake for patients and families when the 100 Mile House emergency department is closed. The ER reopened Monday (Jan. 5) night after its second closure of the year. The issue has been tied to physician shortages, leaving the district fighting other communities for new hires.

“We know the work-life balance for doctors has really shifted and that is part of the shortage of doctors. People aging out is part of the shortage of doctors. That is what happened in our community — we went from 15 to nine in, like, two years because they decided it was time to retire,” said 100 Mile House Mayor Maureen Pinkney. “We are short doctors, like everywhere else in B.C., but the few who we have don’t all work in the ER. Of the ones who do work in the ER, we have a couple who are on leave right now and that is what has prompted all these end-of-year multiple closures.”

“It is all about what you can offer that another town can’t. How do you encourage someone to come here?” added Pinkney.

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The inconsistency of emergency services and the next closest hospital being hours away has the community nervous.

“The unfortunate thing is the seniors are going be pulling more and more resources from the medical system and what do you replace that with?” asked retired nurse Murray Lissner.

“I think the biggest challenge is, it’s not just 100 Mile. It’s a problem right across the country. As a country, we should have been investing in education and health care 10 years ago,” said local Doug Witty.

Interior Health has confirmed doctor coverage for the month of January as it works on further solutions.

“Through our minimum nurse-patient ratio, we will be moving to a three-nurse model for that emergency room from our current two, as well as working with our physician group to look at different coverage shifts and what really matches what we are hearing from them, and the ability to manage the workload at that site,” said Karen Cooper, executive director for clinical operations with Interior Health for the Thompson Cariboo Rural Region. 

While long-term solutions will not come overnight, district officials have forwarded a plan to the Ministry of Health that they believe can help alleviate the staffing crunch in the short term.

“This is where nurse practitioners come in. We have three young nurse practitioners [who] have just opened their own new practice here,” said Pinkney. “They are permitted to work until 2:00 p.m. and they want to work until 5:00 p.m. That sounds like it’s pretty simple so we need a stroke of a pen from the ministry’s office to say that, yes, this is okay.”

Those nurses are also close to completing the necessary training to work in the ER. That change, however, will require provincial action, and so far it’s been radio silence.

“We met with [Minister Josie Osborne] in Victoria before Christmas. We have written two letters since and have not heard back from her yet. But that is where we are pushing for instant change. We realize all the other changes are going to take time,” said Pinkney. “We are going to keep on Minister Osborne and see if we can’t get that legislation changed.”

Other communities such as Merritt, Lillooet and Clearwater have also faced staffing challenges over the past few years. However, it’s not as simple as pulling a solution from another city. 

“When we look at our own community and what we have to provide, our town might be small, the town boundaries, but we provide a hospital for 20,000 in the winter, 40,000 in the summer and we have a main highway driving through that has, sadly, multiple accidents,” said Pinkney. “Some of the models that have been tried in Lillooet and Clearwater, they won’t work here effectively. I do believe Interior Health is going to try as an interim sort of bandage but it won’t work long term. We have a different class of patient and they need a doctor there full time.”