The emergency department at Nicola Valley Hospital is scheduled to close for 25 hours beginning Friday (Aug. 7), marking the latest in a series of service interruptions affecting emergency care in Merritt. Patients requiring emergency care during that time are being advised to seek treatment at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, while all other inpatient services at Nicola Valley Hospital will continue to operate as normal. Anyone unsure whether an emergency department visit is necessary can contact HealthLink BC by calling 811 or visiting HealthLinkBC online. Friday’s closure marks the seventh emergency department service interruption at Nicola Valley Hospital since June. The health authority no longer includes explanations for emergency department service interruptions in its public notices, though previous closures had often been attributed to physician staffing shortages.