The Lillooet Hospital emergency department was closed Monday due to a staffing shortage, and Interior Health says it will remain closed until Wednesday morning.

"We've been unable to secure a physician to cover our emergency department in Lilooet for the next 48 hours," said Karen Cooper, the executive director of clinical operations for Interior Health, in a Monday interview.

With the ER closed, residents&nbsp;are being told to call the ambulance if they need emergency&nbsp;care, which can&nbsp;transport them to an ER in another community.

"If it's a life-threatening emergency, it's always 911 whether we're open or whether we're on service diversion [and closed]," Cooper said.

Karen Cooper from Interior Health says ER closures are only done as a last resort when all other options to find staff have been exhausted.

KAREN COOPER INTERIOR HEALTH

The hospital ER has already had to close about two dozen times since July 2024, according to CBC News&nbsp;tracking.&nbsp;

The closure is one of many in a province that's facing a doctor and nursing shortage.

The health department recommends Lilooet residents needing&nbsp;emergency care head to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, which is about a 170-kilometre drive away.&nbsp;Cooper said she recommends Kamloops as the ER department there is large, and the hospital has many specialists.

Driving distance between Lillooet and Kamloops, B.C., via major highways

Cooper said schedulers do their best to try to bring&nbsp;in more doctors from out of town when there's a shortage so that they don't have to close the ER. However, they don't always succeed.

"On a personal level, there's never going to not be a sense that you've let a community down by not being able to mitigate a gap in service," she said.

5 emergency rooms close in B.C. Interior over long weekend

Emergency services at five Interior Health hospitals have been interrupted this long weekend due to limited physician availability. All but one reopened Sunday morning. Emergency services at the Nicola Valley Hospital and Health Centre in Merritt are set to reopen Monday morning.

The Nicola Valley Hospital, the only hospital in Merritt, B.C., was evacuated due to a gas leak on Friday, Jun. 17, 2022. 

Nicola Valley Hospital

The Nicola Valley Hospital, the only hospital in Merritt, B.C., was closed on Sunday. Four other hospitals in B.C.'s interior paused emergency services over the long weekend. 

Emergency rooms in rural B.C. were closed for equivalent of around 4 months in 2022, data shows

Emergency rooms at 13 hospitals in rural B.C. were closed for the equivalent of around four months in 2022, according to data analyzed by CBC News. Mayors say the problem will likely continue if the province does not significantly invest in health care and prioritize rural residents.

Two paramedics wheel a gurney into the ER of a hospital, flanked by ambulances.

A paramedic is pictured at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. 

COVID-19 PARAMEDIC STAFF SHORTAGES

Rural mayors say rural B.C. emergency departments will continue closing in 2023 if more work is not done to prevent staff shortages.

Ian Tait, a spokesperson for the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C., said its members are increasingly being asked to fill that gap. ER closures in rural and remote areas are becoming more common, he added.

As a result, he says paramedics' work is harder.

"Our members are stepping up all the time to transport these patients a lot longer," Tait said.

"Usually, you can go to the local hospital to stabilize [a patient] and get everything started. So it definitely does add pressure to the ambulance service as well as to transport times and then returning as well," he said.

The Lillooet Hospital and Health Centre in the Fraser Canyon town in an undated photograph.

Emergency department closed for 2 days in Lillooet, B.C.

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