MERRITT HERALD EST. 1905
THURSDAY, October 3, 2024 • www.X.com/merrittherald • www.merrittherald.com
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Mayor fuming over closure Tim Petruk CASTANET
Nicola Valley community members walked the streets of Lower Nicola last Friday to honour the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Photo/Kenneth Wong
2024 UBCM
BREAST CANCER
Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz sat down October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, with the Herald to talk about the 2024 a time to think of both survivors and those UBCM. lost to the disease.
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WILDFIRES can spread rapidly and leave little time to evacuate.
The mayor of Merritt is fuming as his community’s emergency department sits closed for a second consecutive day Monday due to a shortage of doctors — and he’s threatening to publish a leaked document that he says shows many more closures could be coming in the months ahead. “It feels like total abandonment,” Mayor Mike Goetz told Castanet on Monday. “But a closure here on a long weekend is never a surprise. It’s pretty much a given here.” Goetz is reacting to a lengthy temporary shutdown that has the emergency department at Merritt’s Nicola Valley Hospital closed from Sunday morning until Tuesday morning — 48 hours straight, during which time anyone in need of emergency care in the community is being told to travel to Kamloops or Kelowna. He said he received a leaked internal document last week from a health care worker that indicates the Merritt emergency department could be closing repeatedly in the months ahead. According to Goetz, the document identifies more than 20 potential closures of the Merritt emergency room between October and
December — including 15 dates in December alone. “I can’t get IH to confirm that — they won’t return my calls,” he said. “At this point, we’re kind of in a radio silence situation.” Goetz said he’s going to try again on Tuesday, but otherwise plans to make the document public. “I think I’m going to have to publish the dates that we’re going to be down,” he said. “Then at least my community knows what dates it is.” Interior Health provided a statement to Castanet saying temporary closures are a last resort and work is undertaken “right up until the shift starts” to line up a replacement. “When we receive schedules that include unfilled shifts, we immediately look to find coverage,” the statement said. “To provide information weeks or months in advance would not be accurate, given we are successful in covering many shifts once we have a schedule for each site. “We will continue to do everything we can to prevent service interruptions, but there are times when they can’t be avoided.” Earlier this year, Goetz sent a $103,000 bill to Victoria, seeking compensation for the City of Merritt for the days
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