Health Minister Ross Wiseman

Jeannie Baldwin is worried about her father, whose heart surgery Thursday was cancelled at the Health Sciences Centre.

"To tell you the truth, we're disappointed. This is major surgery. He's had a heart attack. He's been 29 days in hospital. He's got major blockages," she said by phone Thursday.

She said the stress of waiting is hard on the family, particularly her dad.

"He's going to have a heart attack. The next thing you know he will be in his grave. This is totally unacceptable. There's no price on a life," Baldwin said.

The man from Clarenville was prepped for surgery Wednesday, but it was cancelled due to a lack of intensive care unit (ICU) beds. He was told he might get it today, but there were no guarantees, Baldwin said.

"And he's not the only one," she said.

NDP Leader Lorraine Michael told the House of Assembly during question period that 13 of 14 cardiac surgeries have been cancelled this week due to lack of ICU beds.

Michael told media afterward the NDP looked into the matter after Baldwin called attention to her father's cancelled surgery.

Health Minister Ross Wiseman told the media the surgeries were cancelled due to a high number of patients who still require ICU beds.

"We've had an inordinate number of critically ill people coming in," Wiseman said. "Adding more staff don't change it. Having extra beds in the building don't change it, because these are critical-care beds that have the appropriate technology."

He said urgent and life-saving surgeries have been taken care of.

"Those that have the ability to be postponed because they are not as critical at that moment, they are being postponed until the bed becomes available," Wiseman said.

During question period, Michael also asked Wiseman to announce his contingency plan for the summer vacation season.

Michael said she understands that all hospitals cut down on elective surgeries during the summer season.

"What we have been seeing in this province the last few summers is way beyond cutting down on elective surgeries," Michael said. "When I asked the minister if he could get some concrete examples, I was hoping he would say something like, 'Now that we have a much better (nursing) contract, now we're going to be doing a nationwide push to get fill-ins to come in during the summer. We now have a better offer we have to make them.' "

But she said Wiseman didn't offer a plan.

"Nothing is going to change unless they are aggressive in using that incentive to get people to come here, either permanently or temporarily," Michael said.

Wiseman told the media that every summer hospitals grapple with vacations and have had to adjust the level of services they offer during the summer to accommodate staff holidays.

He also said many people don't want to have elective surgeries during the summer.

"There's always been an adjustment in the level of services during the months of June, July and August and sometimes into September," Wiseman said.

"It happens the same thing at Christmastime ... there's only so many staff we have in the system now or whether it was 10 years ago. History has shown this is a normal summer activity adjustment."

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