cancelled operations

Norovirus here too - lots of wards closed. It is really quite dangerous being in hospital.

A friend of mine was in hospital after a stroke and people were dying all around her of norovirus - she thankfully did not get it, but it is a terrible memory that has stayed with her.

They are the accommodation of last resort aren't they durhamjen . My dear MIL was desperate to avoid them and fortunately her heart gave out at home, a couple of days before a hospital appointment in which I was going along to defend her choice not to have a leg-vein op. I do wonder at the enthusiasm to do elective surgery on someone in their 80s with advanced heart failure etc.etc.
I remember 30 years ago someone telling me that most surgery was performed on people in their 70s and 80s and being surprised.
They also do multiple rounds of chemo on people of 80+. I wonder how many really want it and how many are just being polite to the doctors.

The last time my husband was an in-patient, I went to accompany him in the ambulance to go to another hospital, and found he could not go because there was norovirus on the ward. I said I'd take him straight home but they would not let me as they said he had to sign himself out, and he was not capable of it. I rang his GP who said she would, but it still took 7 hours to get him off the ward. We were terrified that he would catch norovirus while waiting.
He had written on his notes that he was never going into hospital again, and he never did.

JessM It sounds like DH's discharge from hospital last year which involved 5 hours sitting in the discharge "lounge" with nothing to eat or drink and no one checking his blood glucose although he is an insulin dependent diabetic. When I arrived, expecting to find him still on the ward, no one knew where he was! After I got him home the hospital rang to ask him to come back as they shouldn't have let him go - the answer was a resounding No!

www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/12/nhs-agrees-largest-ever-privatisation-deal-to-tackle-backlog

Jess, they are not waiting to see if they get in.

This will get worse, a lot worse, if they tories get in an push through swinging cuts.

The friend I mentioned above has just had his third cancellation for op that should have been this Saturday.

Yup and it sometimes seems hard to get through a little bit of hospital bureaucracy to get someone out of the door. On one occasion my poor MIL wanted to go home. There was a certain amount of argument going on as to whether hospital or GP should pay for her next morphine patch. Once I had resolved that by phone calls she spent hours sitting in the pleasantly named "discharge lounge" waiting for her drugs. This was obviously a hospital valiantly doing their best to get people out of the bed and into, um, limbo.
I turned up. It was staffed by a tattooed nurse who looked like a bouncer. A 90 year old woman was shouting across the crowded room to him, asking for the toilet and nurse only had one, slow moving and grossly obese healthcare assistant to help with all errands and patient needs. After a bit of badgering on my part it transpired that MIL's drugs were on the ward. Could I fetch them. No had to wait for the assistant to re-appear...
We sang "Show me the way to go home" in the car.

Shortage of beds is a big problem. When there is no slack it takes very little to throw the whole schedule out.

NHS hospitals have been under huge pressure in the last 4 years to cut the number of beds they have. Many consultants have retired early (some because they are fed up with the pressure to increase % bed occupancy). In many areas there are recruitment problems which make it difficult to provide essential services. Cuts in spending on social care. All of these are having an inevitable impact.

durhamjen absolutely not! I understand the frustration, but cannot see what that achieved. Had it been an operation for something life threatening, even, there are surely more dignified ways of getting attention? It worked, perhaps, for that individual, but probably did little to change anything else.

I didn't know that there was a limit to the number of cancellations - interesting because it was my third one that was brought forward. But then, the Christmas and post Christmas panic had subsided.

Wasn't there a number after which you had to have the op?
Something like 3 cancellations?
I appreciate beds are unavailable but many have been waiting for sometime for surgery, in pain and with deteriorating health/mobility etc.
Good for you caz! Perhaps more should try this!

I have a similar problem. I am due for spinal surgery and my first op was cancelled when I was actually sat by the bed in the ward waiting for my pre-med. The second time I had a phone call the afternoon before I was due to go in. I am now going through the whole consent and assessment process again, as it is over 4 months since my original date. The two dates were cancelled due to no beds being available, and the ward ring fenced for elective surgery had been commandeered for emergency patients. So, I am not holding my breath for a third date being definite.

Tomorrow's cancellation is due to lack of beds, previous one because there was no surgeon available. I can't remember the reasons for cancelling the first two.

When my hip operation was shoved to the end of the waiting list - I won't go into the reasons because I need to get to bed sometime! - I went on line and found out the names of the governors of the health trust - it helped that I knew several of them - emailed them all and copied the email to the Chief Executive. It worked like a charm! I felt a bit guilty for pulling strings but then, I was the one in pain!

Sorry Durhanjen he can do something about it. A lot depends on the reasons why the ops were cancelled- I would agree if there was Norovirus on the ward that would be a good reason to stay clear.

www.onmedica.com/newsArticle.aspx?id=f6e491c0-699b-42d0-b33f-fd7ac873c7e4

Check the date.

Charley, are you really saying that the chief executive does not know what is going on? They all know what's happening, but can do nothing about it.

Is this the sort of action that's needed, Ariadne?

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/nhs/11364618/Patient-walks-into-radio-station-in-hospital-gown-after-operation-cancelled-at-last-minute.html

Elective these days means anything that is not an emergency.

I do think that, if you are down for elective surgery, it is the word "elective" that matters as far as cancellations are concerned. You may be in great pain, but you are not, essentially, I'll.

If you have read any of my posts, you will know that I have had a few operations in the past year, and certainly the recent hip operation (6 weeks ago) was cancelled several times over the Christmas period. Yes, I was sad, yes, I was disappointed, and yes, I was in a lot of pain, but nevertheless, I can and could see that the orthopaedic wards might be overtaken by emergencies where people were in a much worse state than I was. And there was noro virus too. The NHS is underfunded, and overworked, and on the whole does its very best.

If you are in extremis, usually you are well catered for. Been there too.

My last operation was eventually brought forward. As I had expected, the whole experience was positive and successful.

We need to campaign to get our NHS the funding and the respect is so richly deserves; yes, complain, but complain to those who are supposed to sort things out. Good luck....

That is very frustrating! Another cause is hospitals having difficulty sending patients home. Insultingly referred to as "bed blockers"
Angela Rippon did a very good report for the One Show last night about the difficulties of discharging very frail patients who are occupying beds and really want to go home. People were scurrying around getting essential adaptations done to their houses, care packages etc etc.

I thought there is supposed to be a limit on the number of cancellations that any one person should endure I wonder what the reasons given are.

If it was due to a high rate of contagious illness on wards or in the staff it might be understandable.

Thanks Charleygirl

nina one way to 99% guarantee a bed this time would be for your friend to write a letter to the Chief Executive stating the anxiety caused, distance covered, petrol used etc. keeping it calm. He will be horrified, obviously not knowing what is going on at the coal face. I can almost guarantee that she will get a bed this atime round even if she ends up in a private ward.

Find out his name on line as it is better to address Mr.X rather than Dear Sir. Good luck.