Overnight closures at an emergency room in the B.C. Interior will continue for eight more nights, the local health authority announced Friday.
The emergency department at Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital in Clearwater, B.C., has been closed from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. since Aug. 11. It was scheduled to resume overnight service Friday night, but Interior Health announced instead that eight more nights of closures were expected.
In theory, the ER is open around the clock, but in practice, the hospital has only had overnight service for five nights in August (Aug. 1, 2, 8, 9, and 10). By the time the latest closures are scheduled to end, the emergency department will have been closed for 21 nights during the month.
The latest closures will take place from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. on Aug. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26. Interior Health attributes these closures to “limited nursing availability.” Previous closures were also staffing-related.
