EDITORIAL – Withholding local taxes for ER closures might get something done

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

RURAL LIVING has many advantages but easy access to health care isn’t one of them.

By rural living, I include smaller communities such as Ashcroft, Merritt, Barriere and Clearwater. Their populations may be small but they need services as much as Kamloops does.

Their health centres serve not only those who live within their municipal boundaries but those in the hinterlands and farmlands of the region. When they aren’t available, it’s a big deal.

The number of times emergency departments in Interior Health are shut down due to staffing shortages is staggering. The health authority is constantly issuing notices about services being unavailable, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for days.

They’re called “temporary service interruptions” and they account for most of the news postings on the Interior Health website. By my count, there have been 20 of them just in the past month.
Then, of course, there was the outrageous sign posted at the Williams Lake hospital saying the ER was closed “Unless patient is imminently dying.”

Recently, Merritt’s Nicola Valley Hospital has been topping the list of temporary closures. It gets almost comical.

On Oct. 7, Interior Health issued an ER closure notice there due to “unexpected limited physician availability.”

On Oct. 10, another 12-hour closure notice went out. That was soon rescinded. But this past Friday, the ER was again shut down, this time for the evening and overnight.

Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz is so frustrated that he says Merritt will start withholding taxes from the province for health services not rendered starting next year. His view is that residents shouldn’t have to pay for something they aren’t getting.

Whether his tactic will work remains to be seen but if he gets support from other small communities, that is, if they do the same thing, something serious might finally be done to fix the problem.

Maybe the plan Adrian Dix talks about will actually amount to something.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.