King Edward VII Memorial Hospital has begun to restrict elective surgeries in a bid to conserve medical supplies in the wake of Tuesday's attacks on New York City and Washington, DC.

"Yesterday, we got news that the airports were not completely open," Hospitals Board chief executive officer Stephanie Reid said.

"We do not manufacture medical supplies here in Bermuda and a great deal of our supplies come from overseas," she said.

"There is an air of uncertainty."

With heightened security at all US airports, there may be no major departures out of the US for several days or longer.

Ms Reid said KEMH had put a strict cap on available supplies in order to conserve them.

"There is no need to sound an alarm," she said.

"We are just trying to be cautious.

"We are trying to conserve and plan carefully so that we can contain our stock."

Ms Reid said the decision to scale back certain elective surgeries was one way to conserve supplies.

"In some elective cases, doctors have looked at it and were able to determine whether or not surgery was immediate," she said. We are working proactively at this time and we are just trying to be cautious."