Merritt ER to close for ninth time in 2025; second time this weekend

Make it nine emergency room closures at the Nicola Valley Hospital in Merritt this year, and the second of this weekend.

Interior Health says the emergency department in Merritt will once again be closed overnight, from 6:00 p.m. Saturday (March 8) until 7:00 a.m. Sunday, March 9. Unlike previous closures, this will be a 12-hour closure as the clocks spring forward at 2 a.m. Sunday.

This is the eighth ER closure in Merritt since Feb. 23, with people in need of emergency care once again being told to head to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops or to call 9-1-1.

“I’ll give the government a suggestion and they are free to use it,” Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar said in the Legislature this week. “How about you have one nurse designated every shift who says they will travel to Merritt if Merritt is short a nursing shift. Pay them a premium if you have to be that designated person 24-hours-a-day.”

Milobar said that when ERs go down in the Kamloops area, patients are sent to Kamloops, putting more pressure on staff at RIH.

“How about this – instead of asking people who are sick and injured and needing emergency care to drive two hours and multiple people doing that, we send one nurse the other way for two hours and keep the ER open?” Milobar said.

“Or we send one doctor the other way for two hours and keep the ER open?”

While the idea seems simple, Health Minister Josie Osborne told CFJC that it’s not that easy of a solution, though she also noted that conversations are ongoing around recruitment.

“There have been a number of steps already taken around pay and around incentives and we do provide those, but that is not enough – and it’s not alone what physicians, nurses and others are looking for,” Osborne said. “I think there is some creative thinking out there and I think we are going to be able to have some good discussions.”

As has been the case during past emergency room closures, Interior Health says people in Merritt who need life-saving emergency care should call 9-1-1.

People who aren’t sure if they need to head to the emergency room are being told to contact HealthLink BC at 8-1-1.