Dozens of hospitals in England have had to declare a black alert – the highest form of emergency status – this week after becoming so overcrowded that they could no longer guarantee patient safety and provide their full range of normal services.
To cope with a surge in demand for care hospitals have been forced to take highly unusual steps, such as cancelling cancer operations. Two days in a row Broomfield hospital, Essex, had to tell a patient with oesophageal cancer that they could not have their scheduled oesophagectomy – which could cure them – because it had no free intensive care bed in which to care for them after the procedure. One cancer specialist at the trust said: “I have never seen so many cancer operations cancelled.
It comes after weeks of cancelled non-emergency operations to cope with pressure on the health service. The NHS cancelled 446 urgent operations in November, almost double the number in the same month last year. The director of communications at NHS England, Simon Enright, tweeted: “It is true that the NHS is very busy at the moment – record demand.”
The health service regulator also asked hospitals to postpone most of their planned operations in a drive to make more beds available over Christmas.
We want to hear from people who have had operations cancelled. Maybe you are a cancer patient or were due a routine operation for something else. Tell us your stories with the form below.
