Grand River Hospital says 120 of its staff members are currently off work due to COVID-19, and as a result, they've been forced to close one of their operating rooms and postpone some elective surgeries.

In an email to CTV News, a spokesperson for the Kitchener hospital stated that the workers either have a positive COVID-19 test result or have been exposed to the illness.

They added that the 120 employees represent approximately two per cent of their workforce.

As a result of the absences, Grand River Hospital has temporarily closed one of its operating rooms and postponed some elective surgeries.

The hospital said it's prioritizing urgent and emergent cases, including cancer surgeries.

OTHER REGIONAL HOSPITALS

Cambridge Memorial Hospital said itsoperating rooms are also short staffed,operating at 80per cent capacity, with a representative confirming 34 staff are off due to COVID-19 or COVID-19-related symptoms

St. Mary's General Hospital in Kitchener is taking it week by week.

“We are scheduling the best we can around the needs,” Jill Schitka, the vice-president of Patient Services and Chief Nursing Executive for St. Mary's General Hospital, told CTV News. “We haven't cancelled electives at this point, but the thing is, we are mindful of how our staffing aligns with what services we need to deliver.”

“All of our services are functioning and running,” Schitka continued. “And this week we are doing fine in regards to staffing at this point in time, but as you know with the pressures in the system, that it is precarious.”

When asked if St. Mary’s is assisting Grand River with any patients or staffing, Schitka said they are not at the moment.

“I do think that everyone is doing really well to work together, we've formed some really strong partnerships with our regional hospitals.”

THE WIDER PROBLEM

Staffing shortages continue to put a strain on the province's healthcare system and these latest measures aren't surprising to the CEO of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO).

"Couple it now with, not only two-and-a-half years of exhaustion, but beautiful weather and another wave of COVID," said Dr. Doris Grinspun. "So some people are ill, some people are ill with their family members. In addition, people are not willing to continue to cancel their days off and vacations.

According to the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), one million people in the province do not have a family doctor.

OMA President Dr. Rose Zacharias said that means existing doctors have increased patient loads and are seeing patients at later stages of need.

Zacharias said physicians are also exhausted.

“In 2021 we measured it at 72 per cent of all physicians were operating at some level of burn out,”she explained.  

According to Zacharias, for every hour a doctor spends with a patient, two hours of paper work is needed. She would like to see more doctors graduating from school, but also get more support so they can spend more face-to-face time with patients.

Grinspun and the RNAO want tomore masks in indoor settings.

“Now we have another wave and that's why we are saying we need to focus urgently on solutions or else it will be even worse,”she said.