Elective surgeries which were cancelled in the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, as instruments contaminated with bone, blood and surgical cement were found in operating rooms, will resume.

Authority CEO Dr. Robert Halpenny said that an audit of the hospital's sterilization procedures did not find any human error. The contaminated instruments including a bone-saw jig, drill bit and surgical tray brought into the operating room weren't used.

NDP Health Critic Adrian Dix said that there had been previous audits of the problem. He wondered how much confidence people could have in the latest audit process when the previous one proved unsuccessful.

An over-burdened surgery department had cancelled about 250 Elective Surgeries due to the discovery of the mistake but now the Interior Health Authority is working to make sure surgical tools are properly sterilized.

"They put in funding to increase the number of surgeries but they haven't put in correlating funding to increase support in the sterilization department", said Regional Union Representative Deb Ducharme.

It is hoped that the sterilization unit would be a top funding priority in the next budget year.