A hospital in southwestern Ontario says it has been forced to cancel several surgeries this week to create capacity as it deals with ongoing staff and bed shortages. A spokesperson for Cambridge Memorial Hospital says eight surgeries have been cancelled due to high patient volumes in the hospital’s emergency department, which have been compounded by staff shortages and staff vacancies. The hospital also warned earlier this week that emergency wait times were “much higher than normal” due to high patient volumes and ongoing staff shortages. The average length of stay in an emergency room for all patients admitted to a hospital was 19.1 hours. ———This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Source: thestar August 12, 2022 04:01 UTC