VICTORIA — The medical director of a health centre in Port Hardy, B.C., is calling for the reopening of the community's overnight emergency room that has been shut for 31 months, saying the community has plenty of doctors.

Dr. Alex Nataros of the North Island Community Health Centre said he cannot understand why the ER at Port Hardy Hospital is still closed at night when the town has "lots of physicians for a town of 4,000 people."

He said there are at least eight doctors in the town, and all have told him they would be willing to work in the ER, which he said had three or four doctors before the closure.

"I don't understand why this has happened, when we have enough doctors, that we are unable to have a functioning emergency room," he said.

"It's a threat to the over 5,000 patients th

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