“The joke around town is plan your accidents, plan your emergencies because the hospital is only open during the day and overnight closures have been ongoing for weeks,” said Mayor Merlin Blackwell.
“There’s a deep concern this will become a permanent trend that we’re going to end up with not a 24/7 emergency department here in Clearwater like what Ashcroft sort of, has been compromised down to.”
The community is also facing an ambulance shortage to the point where Blackwell said he’s heard of at least two cases with people facing critical incidents who have driven themselves to the hospital in Kamloops.
“They have bypassed the ambulance service because nothing was available and they’ve just taken themselves,” he said. “You can at least use an ambulance… if one’s available for a critical incident that should end up in ER so we need both to be stabilized.”
Blackwell has been communicating with B.C. Emergency Health Services and Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital to ensure there are ambulances available if the ER is closed, he said.
The Interior Health Authority is also looking at having ER closures between 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. so the community at least has consistent evening coverage, he said.
