NHS patients suffer as ops and appointments are cancelled

NHS trusts across the country have written to patients informing them not to come in, although they are still providing emergency and critical care.

The picture varies across the UK, with some trusts expecting major disruption and others working as close to normal as possible.

Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust said 41 elective operations - 80% of the elective workload - had been cancelled and rescheduled.

Outpatient clinics have also been cancelled but emergency and trauma care will continue.

A spokeswoman said: “Trust staff may be redeployed to cover other areas in order to maintain patient services.

“Any redeployment of trust staff will be commensurate with the skills of the employees concerned and staff will not be required to undertake roles which are above and beyond their levels of competence.”

A spokeswoman from Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust said no planned operations had been cancelled.

She said appointments at the early pregnancy assessment unit had been rescheduled for tomorrow.

She added: “The full impact of the strike action will not be clear until it is under way, so it is possible that we may have no choice but to cancel some appointments and procedures on the day.”

In England, the Government estimates around 60,000 non-urgent operations, out-patient appointments, tests and follow-up appointments have been postponed while in Scotland at least 3,000 operations and thousands more hospital appointments are affected.

The University Hospital of South Manchester Trust, which runs the Wythenshawe Hospital site in south Manchester, said around 200 non-urgent outpatient appointments have been cancelled.

A spokesman said all other services will be operating as normal and patients who have not already heard from the trust should attend hospital as planned.

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said, so far, 211 out of 1,149 outpatient appointments have been cancelled and 47 out of 99 elective inpatient and day case operations have been cancelled.

The trust said patients who have not been told their appointment has been cancelled should attend as normal.