A shortage of staff has resulted in the temporary closure of an operating room in Red Deer and the rescheduling of about 70 elective surgeries.

David Thompson Health Region president and CEO John Vogelzang said on Wednesday that the region has more than 300 openings for jobs ranging from cooks and support staff to lab technicians and registered nurses.

That is about three times the number of job openings the region expects to see, he said.

“When you have an opening, you want it to be filled fairly quickly as well,” said Denise McBain, senior vice-president of health services. “But some of these positions have been open for months.”

When at full capacity, there are about 9,000 staff working in the region.

Recruiting health care professionals is a problem across the country Vogelzang said.

“This is definitely not a problem unique to our region. Provincially, nationally and internationally, recruiting professionals is a struggle,” he said.

Last week, the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre closed one of its eight operating rooms because of a lack of staff.

“Our staff have been working incredibly hard to maintain a high level of patient care, but we want to make sure that they don’t burn out in the process,” Vogelzang said.

That operating room, which had just opened in January, will not likely be running again until the fall, he said.

“This is something we do with some reluctance given that we had just opened that unit and were hoping to expand our surgical services,” Vogelzang said. “In the interest of staff safety and in the interest of creating some sort of certainly for patients, we believe this is the best option.

As a result of the closure, 37 elective surgeries scheduled for April have been rescheduled, as well as 21 in May and 12 in June. Of those, about 40 were out-patient procedures.

“We need to make sure that we leave enough time and have enough space to do emergency surgeries,” Vogelzang said.

Lack of staff also means 25 closed beds across the region will have to remain that way, Vogelzang said.

In Ponoka, 12 beds have been closed since December. In Red Deer, three beds have been closed since last spring. Since last fall, two beds in Drayton Valley and eight beds at the Centennial Centre in Ponoka have also been closed.

McBain said a lack of beds means a backlog in emergency rooms.

“What typically happens is that there’s a backlog in the emergency department, with more patients waiting to be admitted to beds,” she said. “The other scenario is that people are transferred to Edmonton or Calgary, but the reality is they are in the same situation we are.”

McBain said it’s possible that even more beds could be closed this summer because of staff going on holidays.

The lack of staff is not due to a lack of funds in the region, Vogelzang said.

“This is not a budgetary issue,” he said. “It would be much more efficient if we were able to fill all the positions and not pay overtime to other staff.”

The health region has been working on recruitment strategies for the last three years, Vogelzang said. He estimates about 100 vacant positions were filled last year.

“That’s not enough but it is a step in the right direction,” he said.

Representatives from the region have been attending recruitment events across the province and are looking outside the country to find qualified professionals.

That includes the United States, Europe and the Philippines, Vogelzang said.

Kelly Northcott, one of four recruiters hired last year by the region, recently returned from a conference of student nurses in Texas.

“Sometimes we have to point Alberta out on a map for them,” she said.

“We try to sell our proximity to Edmonton and Calgary while still being more of a country setting. We also sell the amount of salary they can make out here.”

Recruiters will be heading to England at the end of the month for another nursing conference.

Northcott said international nurses will need to be licensed by the College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta before they can work in the province.

That can take between four months and a year, depending on which country they are from, she said.

“I think people are interested, it’s a big decision to move out here and that could take time,” she said.

“This is not a short term issue, it is a long term issue,” Vogelzang said. “Not every initiative will result in hires right away but the key thing is to be out there to make sure people know . . . what we have to offer.”

Contact Ashley Joannou at ajoannou@reddeeradvocate.com