Operations have been postponed at Colchester General Hospital after a key member of staff was injured in a parachute jump.
An anaesthetist at the hospital suffered multiple fractures and is now recovering at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.
However, his absence has meant that some operations at the hospital have had to be postponed.
A spokesman for Essex Rivers Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Colchester General Hospital, said tens rather than hundreds of non-emergency operations had been delayed.
He stressed cover in the A&E, maternity and critical care departments was being provided.
Some patients booked in for elective surgery have had their operations postponed, but the spokesman said they had been given weeks of notice and weren't being turned away on the day.
He said staff were already stretched because of people taking holidays.
Published Friday August 13, 2004
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