At least three hospitals serving smaller B.C. communities shuttered their emergency departments this weekend due to staffing shortages.
Interior Health announced the closure of the emergency department at Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital in Clearwater from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Anyone requiring emergency care was directed to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, about 125 kilometres away from the town of 2,300 in the North Thompson region.
The hospital’s ER has been closed four other times this month. District of Clearwater Mayor Merlin Blackwell says such closures have become a “fairly regular occurrence.”
