Hospitals across the UK are cancelling “urgent” cancer operations as the NHS winter crisis worsens.
Some patients have reportedly been told with just a day’s notice that their surgery has been postponed, with a leading surgeon saying it was “extremely worrying” that hospitals had resorted to the decisions.
Clare Marx, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, told The Observer: “Feedback from our members suggests that since the start of January, a large number of hospitals across the UK are now cancelling cancer surgery. This will be extremely worrying to patients and their families.
“It is heartbreaking for a surgeon to have to explain to a patient who has cancer that their operation has had to be cancelled as there are no beds available. It is increasingly clear that no part of the system and no patient is immune from the pressure the NHS is experiencing.”
The Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston, chairman of the House of Commons’ health select committee, wrote in the British Medical Journal: “The political response to a health and care system in severe distress, and more importantly to the people it serves, has been dismal.
Full story in The Independent 15 January 2017