Some elective surgeries to be cancelled

A shortage of anesthetists at Soo Area Hospitals will force cancellation of an undetermined number of elective surgery days over the next couple of months, City Council was told Monday night.

Dr. Tim Best, clinical director of surgical specialties and one of two plastic surgeons at SAH, said that the Soo needs 6 or 7 anesthetists, but has lost three in the past three years.

And the problem not just confined to that one specialty, Best said. "We're short physicians in all specialties," he told Sootoday.com.

Best asked City Council to help in recruiting doctors to the Soo. Council is expected to review the request at its Feb. 11 meeting, but Ward One councillor James Caicco assured Best and two other SAH physicians attending the council meeting that "you have the full support of council."

Also on Monday, hospital representatives met behind closed doors with Daniel Burns, Ontario's deputy minister of health and long-term care.

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