In this economic climate, people cannot work for less than it costs to live. Nurses are voting with their feet and taking work that makes economic sense. Ergo, if they cannot keep rural ER’s staffed, then the pay is just too low.

The employment landscape is a free market as well. If you cannot pay the wages it demands, you cannot complain about the lack of applicants.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The mayor of Merritt, B.C., has sent the province a bill for more than $100,000 over the repeated closure of the emergency room at the Nicola Valley Hospital.

Emergency Health Services paramedics have to transport someone to neighbouring Kamloops for care, that takes them out of the community for at least two hours, according to Goetz.

That means Merritt firefighters, the majority of whom are on-call volunteers, have to cover any medical calls.

In an invoice shared with CBC News, printed on City of Merritt letterhead, a cost breakdown of $103,831.87 is presented to Premier David Eby.

Those costs include $1,132.06 for medical oxygen, naloxone and other life-saving materials, $55,125 for responding to 497 incidents in 2023 and $43,062.34 for emergency room closures, which are listed as having a unit price of about $1,800.

government announced in May it would earmark $155.7 million to encourage health-care staff to work in rural communities.

The original article contains 392 words, the summary contains 146 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!