Lillooet emergency room closed for the weekend, its 31st closure of the year

From May 20: The hospital in the community of Lillooet, B.C., has been closed 30 times so far this year leaving residents frightened and frustrated.

A B.C. emergency room that has already closed 30 times so far this year is closed again, this time for an entire weekend.

The emergency department at Lillooet Hospital and Health Centre closed at 7 a.m. Saturday and will remain closed until 10 a.m. Monday, Interior Health said in a statement Friday.

The health authority did not give a reason for the latest closure, but past incidents have been caused by a lack of staff.

Patients needing emergency care during the closures are advised to seek it at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, a roughly two-hour drive away.

“People in the community who need life-threatening emergency care (i.e., chest pains, difficulty breathing, severe bleeding) should always call 911 for transport to the nearest available and appropriate facility,” the health authority said in its statement.

That’s what the family of Lillooet resident Sandy McKay ended up doing last month.

McKay shared the story of his ordeal with CTV News earlier this week.

“I ended up having a throat infection and double pneumonia,” he explained. “When I got out of the hospital after five days, I was kind of nervous to come back (because of the repeated closures in Lillooet).”

• Read more: ‘It’s not right’: 30 ER Closures at Lillooet Hospital this year

Interior Health told CTV News it’s trying to mitigate service interruptions, offering shorter dayside shifts for physicians to cover and also hiring more doctors.

“We have five existing physicians in Lillooet,” said Karen Cooper, executive director of clinical operations for Interior Health.

“We’re pleased to be able to announce we’re adding four additional physicians in 2025,” she said. “We added one in April and through their assessment process will be able to start picking up in the emergency department in July and then we have three more coming in September.”

She said the physicians, trained outside Canada, need time to be assessed to ensure they’re ready to work and go through a practise-ready assessment.

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Michele Brunoro