Cambridge Memorial Hospital has been forced to cancel some surgeries this week while it deals with a shortage of beds and staff.
“Two surgeries were deferred yesterday and six today in order to add more beds. No cancer surgeries were affected,” a CMH spokesperson told Global News.
“We are hopeful no others will be affected this week.”
The news comes one day after the hospital issued a warning to the community about wait times in which some patients were forced to wait up to 12 hours for care.
There were 22 patients waiting to be admitted in the emergency department on Tuesday morning.
“Unfortunately, our hospital is at capacity, meaning we have no beds to admit these patients,” the spokesperson explained.
The hospital was said to be experiencing issues as it dealt with patient volumes, limited inpatient beds and ongoing staff shortages.
“People visiting the emergency department are much more ill than before, needing more time and attention from our clinicians. Plus, we continue to have staffing challenges (vacancies, sick, etc.), very similar to the other hospitals within the system.”
The pressure had eased somewhat by Wednesday afternoon as the spokesperson said that there were 13 people waiting for beds although the target remains five or less.
The hospital is without at least 27 staff who are off due to catching COVID-19 or are awaiting results as of Wednesday afternoon.
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