An orthopaedic surgeon at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops says in the last two weeks more than 200 surgeries have been cancelled.

Dr. Scott Hughes tells NL News the problem goes deeper than a staffing shortage that affects the emergency department.

Speaking on the NL Noon Report, Hughes says he’s taking his concerns public because he believes the community can no longer act passively. That’s because even without the added stresses of a COVID-19 surge and wildfire evacuations, RIH consistently operates at 100- to 120-per-cent of capacity.

“It is fairly dire. I know more recently the emergency room, and rightly so, has garnered some attention in terms of the burnout in the emergency room, but our nursing staff up in the operating room are getting burnt out as well, and we’re losing nurses.”

About two-thirds of RIH’s ER nurses have reported to have left their jobs, citing burnout as the primary reason. Hughes says that means some nurses are being pulled out of the recovery room to cover.

“It’s not just one thing. It’s once you start losing some nurses to burnout it becomes an evil cycle where the nurses that are remaining and care about the care of patients are taking on more work, their work-life balance is being affected, there’s more overtime that they’re working, and they simply can’t tolerate it,” he added.

The hospital is losing staff to other centres as well, as Hughes notes “we fight a seemingly unwinnable fight.”

“You can get into a debate about other facilities and other sites, such as Kelowna or Vernon, but I think the attention really has to be made on the resources we need here in Kamloops as a community,” he added.

“I think the easiest thing to see is the simple wait times. Particularly, I’m a surgeon and in the operating rooms all of my colleagues and different departments of surgery, their wait times are excessive… Our access to the operating room is not enough. We need more operating rooms but in order to do that, we need more staff, we need more anesthesiologists.”

Interior Health said it did not have anyone available to speak to these concerns, when asked if CEO Susan Brown could speak to the matters. In a statement without attribution to any particular staff, it says wildfire activity across the Interior continues to impact many people.

“Kamloops has welcomed evacuees from neighbouring communities, including long-term care residents and a small number of hospital patients,” the statement said. “In addition to Royal Inland Hospital and Kamloops, people have been evacuated to sites throughout Interior Health and in neighbouring health authorities. Some staff have been redeployed within IH, including staff who have come to RIH. We are grateful to the health care workers who have travelled with the people in their care and who are now working at receiving sites.”

It goes on to say while the emergency department has been busy, urgent and emergency services continue to be available.

“Anyone requiring emergency care should come to the hospital as needed,” the statement added. “We want to thank all health care workers for their ongoing support and dedication through this challenging summer.”