'I feel like I've just lost my family': Oliver pub closes as owner seeks health treatment abroad

For the past nine years, Christine MacKinnon has been welcoming customers to Murphy's Irish Sports Bar and Grill in Oliver, B.C., with a quick smile but last Saturday, shepoured her last pint.

MacKinnonhasclosed down her business in order to seek treatment in her home country of China for the chronic pain she's been experiencing since she was rear-ended in a traffic collision in 2017.

"I'm young. I still want to work but I can't work," she said.

In closing the bar,MacKinnonhas had to lay off six employees and say goodbye to dozensof regular customers.

"I love this small town. Our bar is just like a family. Ninety per cent of our customers [are people who] come here every day.I feel like I've just lost my family," MacKinnon said.

Frustrated with wait times

MacKinnon has seen her family doctor, been to the emergency room for an X-ray, had an MRI scan and has been treated by three chiropractors, butno one has been able to properly diagnose her pain, she said.

Her family doctor ordered a second MRI scan butMacKinnion has become frustrated with the waiting time and the lack of progress in treating her pain.

"After I [last] saw my family doctor I changed my mind and said, 'I'm done. I need to go back to China,'" she said.

"When I go to China and see a doctor, the next day I can get an MRI."

Wait times for an MRI scan in the South Okanaganrangefrom three to sixmonthsaccording to Tim Rode, program director for medical imaging with the Interior Health Authority.

"It is somewhat on the high side and this can be quite a frustrating experience for someone waiting for an MRI," Rode said.

Last year the provincial government increased funding for MRIsin B.C. to allow for more scans to beconducted each year, according to Rode.He added that the South Okanagan region is getting a new MRI machine that is expected tobe running by this spring.

'We are a big family here'

Like many pubs in small towns across B.C.,Murphy's haspool tables,widescreenTVsplaying sports highlights, a weeklyspecialfor chicken wingsand a cast of regular customers who all know the staff and each otherby name.

For bar manager Gabby Campbell, who has worked for MacKinnon for the past four years, the sadnessshe feels about Murphy'sclosingis less about losing a regular paycheque, and more about the loss of community.

"I'm really down about it," Campbell said. "I'm going to miss my customers, I'm going tomiss my boss. We are all a big family here."

The sentiment is shared among a group of regulars sitting at a table in the corner of the pub.

Ramona Medwayoshfell in love with Frank, who would become her husband, when the two started going to Murphy'saftersoftball games 16 years ago.

"We know everybody at every table and when this is gone, what are people going to do?" Ramona asked.

Frank is worried about many of the older patrons who have come to rely on the pub as their community gathering place.

He's also upset that MacKinnonfeels she needs to go abroad to be treated.

"We are Canada. We are supposed to have guaranteed health care," he said.

"Why are we floating towardthe type of country that has terrible health care? I don't get it."

MacKinnonfeels the weight ofwhat closing Murphy'swill mean for her customers' and employees' lives but she aims to return to the community with a new venture.

"I am not sure I can come back to open the pub, but I want to open another business," she said. "I want all my employeesback to work for me."