For the second day in a row, and with more than a dozen other closures in the last month, the emergency department in Oliver is not open again due to a doctors shortage.
Emergency services at South Okanagan General Hospital will be unavailable from 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11, to 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12. Patients can access care at Penticton Regional Hospital during this time.
In response to queries from the Western News, Interior Health said it has been working with the local doctors group while also offering incentives to locums like accommodations and financial incentives but the problem still persists, they said.
Five new physicians have been recruited to the SOGH emergency department since 2021. This has included three who were part of the UBC Return of Service program.
“South Okanagan and Oliver has been identified as an area of need and is prioritized for these,” said IH.
“IH has directed emails and calls to known locums, broad dissemination of shift availability, support for travel and accommodation for temporary physicians and financial incentives. We continue to recruit physicians to the area and have relocation incentives in place in line with provincial programs and broad advertising.”
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