Cancer op cancelled at last minute over strikes
ABREAST cancer patient saw her urgent operation was cancelled at the last-minute due to the nurses’ strike.
Heather Smith, from Walmley, Sutton Coldfield, was due for a pre-op injection at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham on Wednesday, December 14, and then a lumpectomy at Solihull Hospital this week.
But the 75-year-old and her husband Nick were told as they prepared to leave home that neither procedures would be going ahead as arranged due to the industrial action.
Mr Smith said: “My wife is distraught. At the minute it’s a lump in her breast.
“It should have been acted upon months ago and hasn’t been.”
“We were called at 10.10am on Wednesday to say everything was cancelled. We had our coats on to go to the QE.
“We thought this sort of cancer operation would be going ahead. The nurses’ union said urgent operations wouldn’t be cancelled. And it was part of the official blurb from the union that any cancellations would be confirmed by Tuesday.
“So when that deadline went we
Now this has been cancelled she could lose her breast. We are on the floor. We don’t know when this will go ahead. Husband Nick Smith
thought the operation was going ahead. We called and no one knew what was going on. Then at 2pm on Wednesday it was confirmed. We were told by the operations manager the cancellations were due to the industrial action, as there would be no post-operative care.
“Now this has been cancelled she could lose her breast. We are on the floor. We don’t know when this will go ahead. When will they actually do it?”
Mrs Smith was diagnosed with breast cancer in August and had hoped to have the cancerous lump removed before Christmas.
Nursing pickets outside Good Hope Hospital say the industrial action is as much about patient safety as salary.
Andrew WoodburnDrayton, a lead diabetes specialist nurse, said: “We don’t have enough nurses to manage departments and patient care suffers.
“Obviously, patients missing operations is really sad. We are really sorry about that. We are trying to make a difference and make the Government and Department of Health listen to us. Nurses and health care staff have had enough.”
A spokesman for University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust said: “We’re working hard to safely navigate through industrial action. There will unfortunately be some disruption to some of our services, so if you are a patient and have not heard from us, please assume your appointment will go ahead as normal.
“Critical services are protected, so it is really important patients who need urgent medical care continue to come forward as normal, especially in emergency and lifethreatening cases.
“We sincerely regret that, as a result of the industrial action, we have had to reschedule some procedures in the interests of patient safety.
“We are very sorry if this heightens any anxiety or worry. However we will reschedule these for the next earliest opportunity.”
The Royal College of Nursing said chemotherapy, dialysis, critical care units such as ‘intensive care’ and ‘high dependency’, neonatal and paediatric intensive care were ‘exempt’ from strike action.