It has long been difficult for the South Okanagan General Hospital to fill gaps in staffing, which is why the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen heard a plea Thursday for funding to support locum doctors' housing in the Oliver and Osoyoos area. 

"Eight or nine months of the year, (housing) is really doable, you can find some amazing places for some amazing deals," said Petra Veintimilla, RDOS board member, hospital board chair and Oliver councillor. "But in the summer months it's hard."

The emergency room has had to close on a few occasions when staff simply couldn't cover all the hours. 

Oliver and Osoyoos have already been working together to provide housing for locum doctors – those who stand in temporarily.

"We just think it needs to be expanded a little bit, I wasn't sure whether there could be a regional service," mayor Sue McKortoff of Osoyoos said. "It's really an important issue that we need to deal with at some level."

"That conversation, we felt, should be had a little bit more regionally, because the hospital is a regional hospital, not just Oliver and Osoyoos," Veintimilla agreed.

The board was not voting on a particular motion Thursday, but merely discussing the concept of working together to help out with doctor housing as a possibility. 

"I think the concept on a whole was supported, the idea of making your community easily accessible to these locums who have the option to go anywhere was supported all around the table," Veintimilla said. 

Several board members expressed interest in the idea of renting a property year-round to have available for locum doctors. Toni Boot of Summerland said a doctor shortage is an issue in her community as well, so any solutions should have broader impacts around the entire district. 

The board decided to continue discussing the issue over the coming months. 

"For the immediate future it might be a little bit smaller scale, maybe just Oliver and Osoyoos, or Oliver and Osoyoos and Area A and Area C, but we are going to continue to have a bit of a broader conversation with all of the communities in the regional district," Veintimilla said.