Oliver Hospital emergency room set to close for second time in 3 nights

For the second time since late last weekend, Interior Health (IH) announces that the emergency room at Oliver Hospital is temporarily closed due to a shortage of doctors.

Emergency services will not be available at the South Okanagan General Hospital from 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12 until 7 a.m. on Thursday, June 13.

This nighttime closure is the second of its kind at the hospital since Sunday June 9.

Patients can access care at Penticton Regional Hospital during this time, IH added.

Oliver’s emergency department has been plagued by closures for several months.

The regularity of the closures even prompted Oliver Mayor Martin Johansen last fall to call the situation “unacceptable.”

Such service interruptions – which have occurred more than a dozen times through the end of 2023 and several times in early 2024 – also come after the British Columbia government committed 7.5 million dollars to help stabilize physical emergency room coverage at hospitals in Oliver, Merritt and Salmon Arm. . This commitment was made in October.

British Columbia Premier David Eby, in a speech at Oliver Hospital on May 29, said the South Okanagan and Similkameen primary care network will soon expand. These efforts would help provide more health professionals to people living in the community, he added.