Merritt Mayor Michael Goetz won't go away.
"The arrogance of this government," he said in reference to the BC NDP.
"They keep telling us: 'This is the way it is and there's nothing you can do about it.' Well, I won't go away. I need better for my community. This is a humongous problem."
The mayor is talking about the crisis of repeated closures of the emergency department at Nicola Valley Hospital in Merritt.
Over the past 19 months, there have been 24 temporary closures because of doctor and-or nurse shortages lasting anywhere from eight hours to 48 hours.
The hospital in Merritt only needs one doctor to be on shift to keep the ER open, yet sometimes not even that is possible because a doctor is sick or on holidays and the staff shortage means another doctor from elsewhere can't be secured to cover the shift.
The crisis amped up this past week with three closures of the ER July 6, July 7-9 and July 11.
"We're in complete freefall and the government has no plan and no hope of a plan," said Goetz.
" (Health Minister Adrian) Dix keeps telling us the government is throwing all they have at it. Yet, we haven't seen a plan in two years. We need a concrete plan. And, I'd like to see the health minister fired because he's not doing his job."
Goetz also doesn't like Dix saying that mayors who speak out against ER closures are just having a "temper tantrum."
"I'm not having a temper tantrum, I'm speaking up for my community and demanding a comprehensive plan to stop these ER closures," said the mayor.
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Goetz made his comments on Friday, hot on the heels of the latest ER closure from 10 pm on Thursday to 8 am on Friday.
"We need our ER and our hospital to be open this weekend," he said.
"We'll have 10,000 extra people in the (Nicola) valley and it's hot."
Merritt has a population of around 7,500, and the 10,000 extra this weekend comes from people attending three big events -- Bass Coast Electronic Music & Art Festival, the BC Boys Softball Championships and Airport Appreciation Day.
Merritt isn't the only community in this boat.
Over the past week and a half, there have also been repeated temporary ER closures in Clearwater, Kaslo, Oliver, Williams Lake and Lillooet.
Goetz has started to send a bill to Premier David Eby and Health Minister Adrian Dix every time there's an ER closure in Merritt.
The latest bill, after the Thursday-Friday closure this week, now totals $103,831.87.
That represents the cost of having the ER closed numerous times.
During the closures there were 497 incidents that had to be dealt with my Merritt's volunteer fire department rather than the ER.
"These volunteers can be pseudo-paramedics, but they can't transport patients. Because the ER is closed, our ambulances are off to Kamloops or Kelowna," said the mayor.
"Twice in Merritt, people have come close to death because of an ER closure. I don't want someone to die."
Goetz is also dismayed that not a single doctor has come to Merritt under the province's $7.5 million doctor attraction and retention program.
Last year, the province committed the money to get doctors on the job in Merritt, Salmon Arm and Oliver.
That works out to $2.5 million per community.
Yet, the mayor said he hasn't seen any results.
Meantime, Interior Health said it has had success in bringing new staff to Merritt, Williams Lake and other communities.
Merritt, Williams Lake and Lillooet are also eligible for incentives that pay doctors $2,000 more per quarter or $8,000 more per year.
Goetz is also calling on the province to allow doctors and nurses who were fired because they didn't take the COVID vaccine to return to work and help ease the crisis.
Interior Health said the provincially-mandated vax requirements continue to be in place and the continued mandate is not tied to current healthcare staffing challenges.
However, the mayor said the vax mandate affected 900 workers in the Interior Health region, a significant number that could help in the current crisis if they were back on the job.
Goetz also pointed out that BC is the only province in Canada still hanging onto the vax mandate and it needs to let go of it to put doctors and nurses back to work.
A documentary about the chronic ER closures in Merritt and Williams Lake is the focus of one of the episodes in the BC's Code Blue series hosted by internal medicine specialist Dr. Kevin Mcleod.
You can see the episode on YouTube.
Part one of this story ran yesterday with BC United shadow minister for health Shirley Bond saying we should not tolerate ER closures.
