AIBU to be annoyed after my operation was cancelled at hospital?

My son's first surgery which was his most urgent/emergency one actually happened in his hospital room so everyone who was needed came to him. I know it caused a lot of disruption as it was a very all hands on deck moment.

When he did actually make it to the theatre, it was always the same one no matter if it was planned surgery or an emergency. Plenty of both, unfortunately.

Might be more standard in paeds cases though.

i can only speak about my hospital and there is the trauma/emergency theatre that’s kept separate to the electives then you have elective teams and trauma teams. Person doing hip ops would only cover trauma in an emergency major incident situation.

It happens all the time. I had a friend in hospital with a serious injury and they had him set to go three times (nil by mouth the day before) and cancelled. it was super stressful and he nearly ended up in a serious situation because of it.

Not really. My last operation was at a good private hospital and at last minute my surgery was in fear of being cancelled. I was first on the afternoon list and at last minute the scheduled anaesthetist got held up with the morning list at another hospital as something went quite wrong to the point they would be hours late.

They couldn’t get any other anaesthetists who were on the morning roster (over several operating theatres) to stay and do the afternoon schedule for that theatre so I sat there in gown while they rang around the anaesthetist list to try and get someone who was nearby and had capacity. They had a cut-off of an hour if they couldn’t find anyone and the afternoon list would be canned for that theatre and they got someone with minutes to spare and we proceeded 90mins behind schedule. Could have just as easily been cancelled.

Sometimes shit happens. That’s life.

The current standard is that elective and emergency sections should routinely be staffed separately - there are still some places unable to achieve that but it shouldn’t be common now. Sections and the entire rest of the hospital are different.

When I had my elective section it was definitely only one theatre and one team.

i know because my first emergency section was in the same theatre, with the same anaesthetist and midwife as my elective 2 years later.

brought it up with the team and yes, all sections in working hours done by the same team on the L&D ward. Out of hours emergencies went to general theatres and the on call team, but obviously no bumping routine procedures at that time of night.

we were warned that we were 1st in the list so should go down at 9am, but to be prepared for there to be a delay or even a postponement if an emergency came in. Even my elective though there was an issue with the spinal and it took nearly an hour to site, so that will have delayed everyone behind me.

Yes there are. Most often emergencies will go into the emergencies theatres (no one’s sitting around waiting….they will be doing the emergency cases as the come in). Occasionally though that still isn’t enough or a particular person’s skill set is needed and then that may impact an elective list.

They’re not different theatres and staff at all - do you seriously think there are duplicate theatres and staff just sitting around waiting for emergencies to appear?

If there’s an emergency or surgery over runs then it will impact on other elective surgery. My bloke had surgery a couple of weeks ago, he was supposed to be in theatre for an hour, it ended up being two and a half hours - I have no doubt someone else’s was cancelled as a result.

The only way to ensure that planned surgery can always go ahead as planned would be to have sufficient spare capacity to deal with emergencies that arise. It would be very costly to have surgical teams waiting around and operating theatres left empty "just in case".

These are usually totally different teams and theatres that they use. More likely sickness in staff. If the surgeon is ill then they can’t operate but similarly there needs to be enough staff to support and enough beds to accommodate post op.

We had noro go through the hospital week before last and staffing was a nightmare (add on bank holiday so annual leave bookings will be high). It does suck for patients. I think staff are so used to it they don’t think about the wider impact and logistics people go through. Sending love op. Hope they rearrange very soon.

incredibly frustrating I know but it happens. Not just nhs either, in my country too. Years ago I was in hospital waiting for an urgent surgery and it kept getting cancelled because more urgent cases took all the emergency slots. So every night I'd be nil by mouth, wait most of the day nil by mouth then they'd tell me it wasn't happening today and I'd eat supper then nil by mouth again.

Happens all the time tbh. Surgeries are often up in the air - the surgery before may have gone on too long leaving some staff over their safe working hours, sickness may have happened (you really don’t want someone unwell operating on you), an emergency surgery may have co-opted some of the surgical staff or the theatre. Etc etc.

No life happens. I travelled 2 hours then in hospital 4 hours then operation cancelled then 2 hours home it happens

Not unreasonable to be frustrated or upset even while understanding that it may be staff illness etc. I’ve been very lucky and only had one surgery postponed and was at home. Given that one was a series of I think 6 operations over a year I was fortunate, but it still felt bad as just
got ready.

my mother then a doctor would have cancelled her clinic or part of it to be with me. (I was an adult but it was serious)

The only thing that can be done for a few types of treatment is have centres that deal only with lower risk planned surgery such as cataract or hip replacement. The NHS does some of it and it works according this Health Foundation report It would not completely solve things as there might be complications in the patient before you but it would help with waiting lists.

If there an emergency then they take priority over scheduled ops

Sorry @TheOpalFox 😞 xx

I went in for routine day surgery which was supposed to take 30 to 45 mins plus recovery. I was still in theatre 4 hours later. Not sure what happened to the people who were after me on the list

But i assume this wasn't described as staffing issues which does make it sound like flakey staff which im sure not what was meant

By “go on their records” do you mean the relevant department will take note and realise this poor person is absolutely struggling with repeated cancellations? And appreciate the call so they can rearrrange their lists and get someone else off the wait list?

because a no show and wasting everyone’s time is what will get you blacklisted. Not a call with a reason as to why you can’t make the appointment, that being the NHS’s fault.

"im not coming in because i cant face going through this a fourth time and my job is at risk if i take any more time off" will go on their records i assume.

So sorry to hear this OP. I'd be absolutely gutted and fuming if this happened to me. I'm waiting for a hip replacement operation and I'm dreading something similar happening to me. After the way they've pissed me about with my consultant appointments (cancelled and rescheduled 4 times) I wouldn't be surprised at anything to be honest.

Most people have phones and can use them to phone the relevant secretary to inform them of their non attendance.

at least then the next on the waiting list will get seen, instead of nobody.

Happened to my husband. We checked before we left home. He was in his gown in the bed and was told it was cancelled. He wasn't happy either.

I was gowned up waiting for an operation and the surgeon came in breathless and blood-spattered and said there had been an issue with the previous patient, and could I come back in 48hrs?

Presumably to give him enough time to hide the body ...

I hope he recovers soon