FORT SASKATCHEWAN, Alta. — Women who were planning to give birth at a hospital in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., are being told to have their babies elsewhere.
Alberta Health Services says due to a staffing shortage the Fort Saskatchewan Community Hospital's Women’s Health Program will temporarily suspend labour and delivery services.
The city of 27,000 people is about 25 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
The provincial health authority says in a release that pregnant patients will need to speak with their midwife or physician to change their birth plan to deliver at the Sturgeon Community Hospital in St. Albert instead.
Pregnant patients requiring non-emergency medical care are being told to call their family physician or obstetrician.
The hospital’s labour and delivery unit reopened last March after having to close for three months to make room for COVID-19 patients.
-- With file from CTV
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 31, 2021
The Canadian Press