Limited physician availability closes ER at Victorian Community Health Centre — again

By Nelson Daily staff

Residents of are going to be without emergency care after the Interior Health Authority announced the closing of the Victorian Community Health Centre Emergency Department for most of the last week of June and into July.

“Kaslo and area residents are advised that due to limited physician availability the Victorian Community Health Centre Emergency Department will be closed . . . ,” Karl Hardt, Communications Officer for IH said in a statement.

Hardt said the emergency department is closing from 5 p.m. Monday June 24 to 8 a.m. Tuesday, June 25; from 5 p.m. Thursday June 27 to 8 a.m. Friday, June 28 and from Friday, June 28 to Tuesday, July 2.

The closure is the second in less than a month.

The ER was shutdown for the same reason Friday evening May 31, until Monday morning, June 3.

In September 2012, it became clear that Kaslo was going to have a problem staffing enough doctors to keep the emergency services open 24/7.

As a result, the IH announced it was going to reduce emergency services to 9-5 during weekdays only. But an outcry from the community convinced IH to continue 24/7 services and form a working committee to help keep the emergency room open.

However, in the process, the health centre lost its two doctors. Contracts for the staff doctors were not renewed earlier this year.

Hardt said Kaslo and area residents, in case of an emergency, call 9-1-1, visit the emergency department at Kootenay Lake Hospital in Nelson or call HealthLink BC at 8-1-1 (24 hour service), if anyone is unsure about the need to attend the emergency department.

For non-urgent needs residents can visit a walk-in clinic located at the Chahko Mika Mall in Nelson.

“Interior Health continues to actively recruit for permanent and locum physicians and regrets this temporary change to normal services,” Hardt said.