Dawson Creek hospital ER to close on July 14th amid short-staffing

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Dawson Creek and District Hospital will experience an emergency department diversion on Monday, July 14th. (Northern Health)

DAWSON CREEK, B.C. — Emergency department services at Dawson Creek and District Hospital will be temporarily unavailable during its daytime hours starting Monday morning.

The Northern Health authority announced in a July 13th Facebook post that the hospital’s ER will go on diversion on July 14th from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m.

According to the post, the diversion is due to “staffing challenges.”

This comes after a 10-hour closure at the hospital was cancelled on July 11th when staffing was arranged.

Anyone needing life-threatening emergency care is urged to call 911 to be transported to the nearest available facility.

Patients with non-urgent care needs should contact their primary care provider for an appointment and anyone without a family doctor can call the NH Virtual Primary and Community Care Clinic at 1-844-645-7811 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

The First Nations Virtual Doctor of the Day program also enables Indigenous people and their family members living in B.C., with limited or no access to their own doctors, to make virtual appointments by calling 1-855-344-3800 seven days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.