Management at a southwestern Ontario hospital says it is being forced to cancel several surgeries this week, to address ongoing staffing shortages and lack of beds.
A spokesperson for Cambridge Memorial Hospital, southeast of Kitchener, said eight surgeries had been canceled due to the high volume of patients in the hospital’s emergency room — an influx compounded by staffing shortages.
The Cambridge Memorial also warned earlier this week that emergency room wait times were “much longer than normal”, due to high patient volumes and staff shortages.
Hospital management warned that patients would be seen in priority order if they needed emergency care, while recommending that other care options be sought if possible.
The latest data from Ontario Health shows the average wait time for a patient to receive an initial assessment by a doctor in an emergency room was 2.1 hours in June. The average length of stay in an emergency room for all patients admitted to an Ontario hospital was 19.1 hours.
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