‘Three new doctors scheduled to come to Merritt’; Minister Dix hints help is on the way

MERRITT, B.C. — After 19 separate emergency room closures in 2023, the Nicola Valley Hospital’s ER saw it’s first two shutdowns of 2024 this past week due to limited physician availability. Over the past year, the community of Merritt has held multiple protests in front of the healthcare facility calling on government to step up and provide the basic level of care to Merritt and travellers along the Coquihalla Highway and Okanagan Connector.

The first two closures of the year in Merritt have been attributed to physician shortages, a notable difference from the majority of shutdowns last year being credited to lack of nurses.

“Principally, what we are doing is bringing in locums from other communities, including from Kamloops and Kelowna and Vernon and other communities that come in and support that emergency room,” B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix told CFJC Today this week. “That is the challenge, on occasion, when you are doing that, when something occurs — say a family tragedy or somebody gets sick — you are vulnerable to that. And that is why building out the base of local doctors in important.”

Unsurprisingly, Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz has grown frustrated over the continued closures and plans to ask for a credit for taxes paid without proper service. The 19 days of missed service in 2023 account for approximately $34,000 for the city.

“This is something that would not only help Merritt but help Clearwater and Ashcroft and Cache Creek and the Blue River area,” said Goetz. “I’m not just doing it for Merritt. I’m trying to do it for the all of region, but you have to start somewhere and the whole idea. But that is where we would go with it.”

While Minister Dix appreciates the fight out of Mayor Goetz, when asked about the credit, he stuck with work being done behind the scenes to fix the problem.

“It’s more doctors and nurses that are the key to this. And that is why we have offered a new APP contract, a new pathway for internationally-educated doctors, triple the practice-ready assessment program,” listed Dix. “(We) have three new doctors scheduled to come to Merritt in 2024, more nurses hired already and a program the backs up communities such as Merritt, and significant money on the table.”