A second summer closure of operating rooms at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital could become a permanent shutdown.
Unionized staff at the hospital say that with four weeks total of cancellations through the summer, an average of 240 surgeries will be delayed.
This will add to wait times already sitting around six months or longer.
Peter Anis, the vice president of the local CUPE and a staff member at the hospital says people waiting for general surgeries like hernia operations will be the first to see a cancellation.
He says there is only one solution.
"The hospital needs more funding. The hospital is underfunded and the government is not giving enough money for the hospital to run what the need to do," said Anis.
"We need the surgeries it's a growing population, an aging population and these services are needed. And without the appropriate funding, the hospital -- the only way they can recover is by cancelling these surgeries."
He says there is some funding coming into the hospital but little of it is for operating costs. Instead, he said, it goes to expansions.
"When we originally increased our first phase, increasing our beds, they opened the new wing. Everybody was happy," he said.
"But we didn't get the funding. We had to close the old wing to open up the new wing."
The hospital normally runs five operating rooms and for two weeks in July and again in August only two rooms will hold surgeries.
The president of the local CUPE, Gary Sprague, says part of the problem is the aging population and along with the need for more beds and more staff comes the need for more funding.
He says the money should come from the provincial government but it needs additional funding from the federal government.