Nearly 8000 hospital ops cancelled last year

ALMOST 8000 hospital operations were cancelled last year due to factors including a lack of beds, staff and equipment.

New figures show that in December, 644 (2.4%) of operations were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons.

These can include the unavailability of beds, staff and equipment as well as employee illness, dirty equipment and theatre sessions overrunning. The December figure takes the 2016 total to 7740.

Scottish Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar MSP said: “Every single day NHS staff tell us that they are under pressure and under-resourced. Now we see that close to 8000 planned operations were cancelled last year because hospitals did not have the capacity to cope.

“A decade of SNP mismanagement of our NHS means that patients are being let down because hospitals are not getting the support they need.”

Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP, for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: “Across the country more than 20 patients a day failed to receive the operation they needed because their hospital could not accommodate them. This is bad for patients, bad for their families and a huge burden on NHS staff too.

“I was deeply troubled when Dr Patrick Statham, a neurosurgeon at the Western General Hospital, got in touch to say the situation in his ward was so dire he was being forced to cancel operations.

“Doctors and nurses across the country are working incredibly hard to give patients the best possible care. Now the SNP need to match that dedication and get serious about giving health boards the support they need.”