SASKATOON (ASRN.ORG) - Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital is canceling surgeries due the shortage of nurses.

According to Dr. Susan Shaw, department head for adult critical care at the Saskatoon Health Region, "I can't give numbers, but all three ICUs have peaked."

Royal University Hospital's 12-bed intensive-care unit is the only one that can handle both cardiac patients and those with trauma or needing neurosurgical services.

"Over the last week, we've had more patients with those illnesses than we normally would, so they've had to stay at the university site. The downside of this is our mix of patients, which includes the cardiac surgery patients, who can safely be postponed, have had to be postponed," Shaw said.

This is not the first time this situation has occurred.
The region postponed 44 cardiac surgeries between April and December of last year because of a lack of ICU beds.

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