Surgeries were cancelled yesterday at the Campbell River hospital because there weren’t enough beds for patients.

“All our surgeries are cancelled today because of gross overcrowding,” Dr. Stephen Sohmer, orthopedic surgeon at the Campbell River hospital, said Thursday morning.

“They’ve done one cancer patient but everything else is cancelled.”

Sohmer said there simply weren’t enough beds available. Patients need somewhere to recover and be cared for after undergoing surgeries, and on Thursday, there wasn’t anywhere for them to go, prompting the cancellations.

This isn’t the first time hospital staff have found themselves in this situation.

Sohmer, critical of the way the health authority manages the hospital, believes it’s because of a disconnection between the hospital’s operations and Vancouver Island Health Authority managers based in Victoria.

“The surgeries will be rescheduled as soon as possible,” said Val Wilson, spokesperson for the Vancouver Island Health Authority, explaining that the hospital had to cancel five inpatient elective surgeries and four same-day elective surgeries.

No urgent surgeries were postponed, she said.

Wilson said the health authority is sympathetic to patients, who have to wait longer for surgeries, and to surgeons, who have to adjust their schedules to deal with postponements.

She said that while a large number of people are visiting emergency rooms around the Island with flu symptoms, the local cancellations are not connected to any particular flu, H1N1 or otherwise.

The hospital is just plain busy.

“It’s just a variety of illnesses,” she said.

She said the hospital has protocols it is following to try and free up beds so the surgery schedule can get back on track.

Some solutions could include sending patients home early to recover with the help of home care nurses.