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State of Emergency?

Merritt mayor mulling state of local emergency declaration if ER closures continue

Feb 28, 2025 | 4:44 PM

MERRITT, B.C. — The City of Merritt may declare a state of local emergency if the emergency room at the Nicola Valley Hospital continues to experience closures at regular intervals.

The facility has already been closed on four occasions this month — including three times this week — putting Merritt on pace for 24 closures this year.

“We’re as important as anybody else,” Mayor Michael Goetz told CFJC Today, referencing recent ER closures in Delta, which he said “should not be happening either.”

I’m going to be honest with you, if this continues, we’re going to have to call a state of emergency because we need somebody else to be here helping us with this,” Goetz added. “If that means we need to start bringing in the military to help, then that is exactly what we’ll do. We didn’t go that far this time, but we’ll see how things go.”

While it remains to be seen whether he follows though with the state of local emergency declaration, and what it might actually accomplish, Goetz said he’s at his wits’ end after a firefighter who responded to a house fire Sunday night (Feb. 23) had to be taken to Kelowna to be treated for dehydration because the Merritt ER was closed.

“At this point, when it gets to a situation where you’re almost running out of any option and you’re being closed almost every single night, no idea is too crazy,” Goetz said, when asked about his suggestion that the military might get involved.

“There has to be a solution to this, and if it means that some of us mayors get a little bit crazy, then that is what happens.”

Goetz has written to Interior Health President and CEO Susan Brown to say he wants his community to be kept in the loop when it comes to staffing the emergency room. He also hopes to see healthcare professionals made to work in smaller communities like Merritt after they graduate.

“It’s much like Depot RCMP officers. You give us two years in a smaller community and then after that, you’re free to go where you want to go,” Goetz said. “I understand young nurses want to be where its happening, but at some point, you’re going to have to reroute some of these eager beavers and send them here because we need them.”

“Allowing nurses to decide where they want to go, I think, has got to stop. We’ve got to have them assigned to hospitals to keep hospitals open.”

Goetz says he has floated that idea in the past when Adrian Dix was health minister, but “wasn’t expecting” to hear back.

“I think with this new minister (Josie Osborne), I have great hopes that we have some new eyes and we’re going to move in a direction but IH needs to now get involved,” Goetz said. “They have been pretty quiet on this front for almost three years and that’s got to come to an end.”

In a statement to CFJC Today, Interior Health Vice President, Clinical Operations Diane Shendruk said she will be reaching out the City of Merritt to discuss Goetz’s concerns.

“Interior Health appreciates the mayor’s concerns and the impacts changes to normal services have on the residents in Merritt. I will be reaching out to the mayor directly to discuss this further,” Shendruk said in an email.

She also said while emergency services in Merritt “have been more stable in recent months,” there is still a shortage of permanent staff.

“Unfortunately, with a shortage of permanent recruits, service interruptions can still occur when the unexpected happens and someone is suddenly unavailable for a scheduled shift,” Shendruk said, noting Interior Health and local staff as well as the province have been working to end the series of ER shutdowns.

“We have been successful in recruiting four new physicians to the community in the last year and continue to work on robust recruitment campaigns in BC and internationally to recruit more permanent staff. There remain multiple ongoing incentives from Interior Health and the province in place to bring new nurses and physicians to the community.”