Political | Process

The staff shortage will result in the hospital being “unable to safely staff” the maternity department beginning Sept. 25th.

• “The number of resignations received leaves us no choice but to pause delivering babies at Lewis County General Hospital,” Cayer said. “It is my hope that the [New York State] Department of Health will work with us in pausing the service rather than closing the maternity department.”

• Cayer said 165 hospital staffers, about 27% of the workforce, remain unvaccinated. Seventy-three percent of those unvaccinated staffers provide clinical services at the hospital.

• The Sept. 25 pause is scheduled two days before New York state’s deadline for health-care workers to be vaccinated if they want to continue working, according to the Watertown Daily News.

• Officials with the Lewis County Health System did not immediately respond to requests for comment.