The Health Department has ordered the hospital to stop doing hip and knee surgeries until the next fiscal year, which begins in April, according to Dr. Ethan Lichtblau.

The hospital in the Rosemont district has hit a government-set target number, and depleted its prosthesis budget for this year.

"The government has actually stopped our hospital for the six weeks from doing any more total knee or total hip replacements even though we've been very efficient," Lichtblau said Friday. "They've done it because we've gone over our target, which was an arbitrary target."

The hospital has been focused on reducing waiting times for surgery, Lichtblau said.

Now, the government order will force some patients to wait unnecessarily, the surgeon laments.