Hospitals cancel one operation every day

A PLANNED operation is cancelled almost every day in the Lothians because of bed shortages, faulty equipment, or staffing issues, it has emerged.

Hundreds of procedures were postponed in 2009 across the area's main hospitals, although health chiefs point out it is still a tiny fraction of the total number of operations.

The most cancellations came at the Sick Kids Hospital, where equipment broke down 17 times and on 52 occasions there were not enough beds to press on with planned procedures.

On 30 occasions at the Sciennes hospital, a staffing issue led to the operation being called off.

The Edinburgh Royal Infirmary had more than 70 cancellations last year, while there were 61 postponements at the Western General.

St John's Hospital in Livingston, meanwhile, cancelled 74 operations purely because of staffing problems.

Councillor Ellen Glass who is a campaigner for the Action to Save St John's group in Livingston, said: "No operations should be cancelled, it is a time of anxiety for the patient, who has taken time off and got worked up to coming in.

"For them to have to go through it all again is hard, and it doesn't inspire confidence.

"Sometimes you have folk who have been in hospital for a couple of days preparing who are just shattered when it can't go ahead."

At Roodlands Hospital there were six incidences of equipment breakdown, while a handful of operations were delayed at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion because of staffing issues.

It is understood there were more cancellations in the first month of 2010 as NHS Lothian struggled to cope with the huge increase of patients coming in with injuries and illnesses related to the freezing weather.

It was recently announced that an extra 50 beds would be created at the ERI, but opponents said that still did not take the total up to anything like that of the old hospital at Lauriston.

Of the total number of procedures cancelled at the ERI, 56 were because of bed availability.

Tom Waterson, Unison's Lothian branch chairman, said: "Ever since the move the issue of beds is something we've spoken about.

"There has always been a shortage at the new ERI and it remains a concern.

"When it comes to staff sickness there isn't much you can do, it only takes one key member of a team to be off at short notice and it can't go ahead."

NHS Lothian medical director Dr Charles Swainson said: "Last year a small number of operations – 325 out of 124,055 elective admissions – had to be rescheduled.

"This is testament to the dedication and hard work of our staff, who do all they can to ensure operations go ahead as planned.

"On occasion there are unavoidable circumstances such as staff absence and equipment problems, which mean operations have to be rescheduled.

"Planned procedures may also be postponed due to demands on the service caused by emergency admissions. While we do plan ahead for potential emergency admissions, sometimes we have to prioritise those in greatest need of our help.

"In these rare cases we do all we can to minimise the disruption to patients and to reschedule as quickly as possible."