The emergency room at Victorian Community Health Care Centre in Kaslo will scale back its overnight service for a week early next month.
Interior Health says from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. from April 1 to 8, on-call physicians will only see the most urgent cases. The emergency department will remain open, but less serious cases may be sent elsewhere after being assessed by a nurse.
To avoid visits to the emergency room, the health authority asks residents to contact their family doctor for non-urgent care, visit the walk-in clinic in Nelson, or call HealthLinkBC at 811.
The ER has undergone turmoil and turnover over the last few months. A threatened reduction of hours last fall was averted, but several physicians did not have their contracts renewed.
Interior Health is recruiting new doctors to staff the facility while community consultations are ongoing.