The Ottawa Hospital has been forced to cancel 112 surgeries originally scheduled between Oct. 28 and Nov. 6, said CEO Dr. Jack Kitts. (Simon Gardner/CBC)More than 100 surgeries have been cancelled at the Ottawa Hospital as swine flu patients flood emergency rooms and fill hospital beds.

"We are postponing people who really need to be done, and that's not something we take lightly, and it is not something we want to do," said Dr. Jack Kitts, CEO of the Ottawa Hospital.

The hospital has been forced to cancel 112 surgeries originally scheduled for between Oct. 28 and Nov. 6. They include operations that are considered less time-sensitive, such as shoulder repairs, knee and hip replacements and hernia operations.

Kitts said since swine flu started spreading this fall, emergency room visits have jumped 40 per cent. But what has really stretched resources at the hospital, which is almost always operating at or near full capacity, is that close to 40 people were in hospital Monday with problems related to swine flu.

Dr. Joseph Mamazza, the hospital's head of general surgery, had to call three patients to cancel gastrointestinal surgeries last week.

"It's very difficult for me to have to pick up the phone and call patients and say, 'Listen, we're stretched to the max. We have no beds, and we have to reschedule you,'" he said.

Burden on family

In many cases, patients have to make costly arrangements to come in for surgery or have arranged for relatives to help them, Mamazza said.

"So, it puts quite a burden on the family itself," he said.

And many patients have already waited a very long time for their surgeries, Kitts said.

"By the time these patients have waited several months to get here, they're often in a lot of pain and have developed other illnesses," he said.

The hospital is trying to give patients another operation date within a few weeks, and Kitts said staff are determined not to cancel a patient's surgery more than once.

Shorter lines at vaccine clinics

Meanwhile, Ottawa Public Health continued to hand out wristband passes for priority groups to get vaccinations later in the day. By mid-morning Tuesday, lines appeared to be much shorter at the city's vaccination clinics and many had hundreds of wristbands left to give away.

As of 11:15 a.m., the Fred Barrett Arena clinic reported having 250 wristbands left, the Orléans Client Service Centre had 750 and the Tom Brown Arena had 800. There was no word on the number of wristbands available at the Vanier-Richelieu clinic or the clinic at 100 Constellation Cres., which will run from 2:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday.