Okanagan hospital's ER closed for the 2nd weekend in a row

A hospital in the South Okanagan will be without an emergency department Friday night.

Interior Health announced that Oliver and area residents will need to travel to Penticton for emergency care while the ER at the South Okanagan General Hospital is closed.

That is about a 40 minute drive north.

The closure will start at 5 pm Friday and is expected to end at 7 am on Saturday.

Normally, the hospital’s ER is open 24/7, however, Interior Health says there is a lack of available doctors.

All other outpatient services will continue as normal.

“People in the community who need life-threatening emergency care (i.e., chest pains, difficulty breathing, severe bleeding) should always call 911 for transport to the nearest available and appropriate facility,” the health authority said in a news release Friday afternoon.

This will be the second weekend in a row that the ER has been temporarily closed and the first time in October.

Most recently, the department was closed for 14 hours on Sept. 30, marking the fifth closure in September.

In August, it was closed eight times.

Between January 1 and July 31, the department was closed 21 times.