Surgical delays have plagued Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops since February. (Interior Health Authority)

B.C.'s Interior Health Authority is blaming old equipment for the cancellation of several surgeries scheduled to be performed Thursday.

Nineteen surgeries at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops had to be postponed after two of the hospital's three autoclaves stopped working on Wednesday. Autoclaves are high-temperature devices used to sterilize surgical instruments.

"[The autoclaves] are absolutely due for replacement," said Health Authority services administrator Marg Brown, pointing out one of the sterilizing units is more than 15 years old, well beyond its designed service life

The postponements are just the latest in a series of setbacks involving surgical tools at the hospital in the past several months.

In February, hundreds of elective procedures had to be cancelled at Royal Inland after staff discovered improperly sterilized surgical tools that still had dried blood and bone fragments on them.

Tampering alleged

The RCMP began investigating in April when it appeared that surgical instruments had been purposely contaminated at the hospital. That investigation continues.

The problem with the autoclave breakdowns will not be resolved quickly.

Brown said the health authority does not have the budget to approve the purchase of new capital equipment, but the government has committed to replacing the autoclaves by the end of 2011.

"It's something that needs to be planned," she said.

The surgery delays are unacceptable, said B.C. NDP health critic Adrian Dix.

"It's very disconcerting," Dix said. "The government knew about this years ago … that they had to do a full renovation of the sterilization unit."

Brown said both autoclaves appear to be back up and running and surgeries should resume Friday.

With files from the CBC's Wil Fundal