A rally is planned in Harbour Breton this evening to bring attention to repeated emergency room closures in the area.

Residents will gather in the parking lot of the Connaigre Arena at 6 p.m. and then march to the Connaigre Peninsula Community Health Centre.

The emergency room there has been on diversion all week, and it’s not the first time.

Former mayor Georgina Ollerhead says the nearest alternate emergency room is a 2.5-hour drive away. She says her father suffered a medical emergency last month following a fall and had to endure that lengthy ambulance ride for treatment.

Ollerhead also tells of a child who recently had to be taken to hospital in Grand Falls-Windsor while the local clinic was on diversion.

She says the family arrived at the hospital at 2:30 in the afternoon but the child wasn’t seen until early the next day.