Staff shortages, Covid-19 and the winter flu is putting pressure on Dunedin Hospital

All planned acute and elective surgeries had to be postponed or cancelled due to the scarcity of staff available to work in operating theatres yesterday.

This is part of the hospital's escalation plan when it reaches a critical level of occupancy.

It's different from the Code Black declared by the Southern DHB last year, during which it restricted access to the hospital for new patients.

Chief Operating Officer Hamish Brown hopes the hospital will be able to resume a normal workload as soon as possible.