Surgery cancelled whilst in the waiting room.

[Skinnyplaits]

Has this happened to anyone else? I was up at 5am this morning to get there. Childcare arranged and DH and family prepped. Meals sorted, club lifts arranged, work arranged and everything. I was sitting in the surgery admissions area at 7:15 and I got a call saying my surgery was cancelled. The surgeon has pulled his back. I have waited so long and I'm devastated.

Its taken me until now to get home and I'm back at my desk working with a very grumpy employer.

That's inexcusable.

I don’t think it helps that, when you’re cancelled, you’re feeling so vulnerable and emotional as you’re hungry, in a gown, worried about the procedure and desperately hoping life will begin to improve.
One of my friends is an oncologist and her husband is an anaesthetist. They met as junior doctors when they’d both been posted to a random hospital miles from friends & family and that is where they still are. With no local support network, they always really struggled when one of the DC was ill as who didn’t go to work? The oncologist? Or the anaethetist?

Oh dear! I don't think at any point I suggested any of this. What I do suggest is that patients who have elective surgery cancelled should receive some compensation to account for the time, and the physical and emotional impact.

If you read all my comments in the thread you will see that the NHS can certainly afford it, and it might focus the minds of the very senior, well-paid CEOs of our hospitals - you know, the ones most of us pay for.

Also, don't forget that a cancelled operation means more GP visits and less productivity for the wider economy due to sickness, etc. But this would require people seeing the bigger picture, and some people aren't able to do this.

I had an op, cancelled twice, managed to have it done on the third occasion. One of the reasons we joined Benenden.

I was on table in anaesthetist room with canula in, heart pads on, all done except the anaesthesia put in when my surgeon rushed through from theatre room to say he could not go ahead because both the trays of instruments for my surgery were not sterile as had small tear in them. To say I was upset is putting it mildly, was a big back surgery so I was prepared and psyched up. This was a private hospital but on nhs. Had it 2 weeks later 🙏

The only solution to patients being cancelled on the day because of delays and prioritising emergencies is to have underutilised theatres with excess staffing. That means you'd have a waiting list that, say, doubled but you wouldn't get cut once you get there.

Surgery is unpredictable and people just have to understand that everyone is doing their best.

I had surgery cancelled just as I was being put to sleep. They’d check and realised the key part hadn’t arrived. I had already started with the IV drugs so had to stay for the rest of the day

It’s heartbreaking for the mental prep more than anything but honestly be happy that someone was willing to put your safety first

The surgeon had pulled their back? Would you rather they hadn't cancelled and just got the work experience lad to do the op?

Why does it mean more GP visits?

Considering the NHS can’t afford to maintain or replace its crumbling infrastructure or increase its budget to cover the gaps in staffing (there’s a recruitment feeeze if you hadn’t heard) why do you think it can afford to be financially compensating people for events outside of its control

Because people experiencing chronic issues requiring surgical intervention will inevitably fall back on primary care services if their problem is not rectified.

Any well-qualified healthcare professional with a basic grasp of the relationship between NHS finances and health economics would realise that.

There are also recruitment freezes in many industries - including non-NHS social care - and have been for a considerable time.

Again, I'd refer you back to my earlier post where I show how little it would cost -

About 70-80 thousand operations are cancelled each year. To give everyone a £100 voucher would cost £8M per year in total.

The NHS costs over £513 million per day. A £4M payout per year is less than 40 minutes of the daily NHS budget or roughly 0.005% of the annual budget.

Not everyone has the luxury of an NHS employment contract with generous, paid sick leave etc., and a self-employed person could lose £100s of pounds.

My Mum was gowned up and next to go for surgery during the summer. To be fair it was a technical problem with the operating the theatre and the surgeon was really upset. She had the op three weeks later with one further cancellation before the final go ahead.

Yeah, I don't understand this either. All this with no Team Brief?

It’s very frustrating, but they surely won’t cancel for nothing. It’s not a world where everything goes to plan, I guess.
My mum died following an operation at Xmas. They kept her alive until
i could get there (half hour) and she died half an hour after that in the surgical recovery room. I suspect we took up some planned time for them, but they made it so dignified for her.

My DF waited all day, nil by mouth, was gowned up and off his face on the pre-med they'd given him when they cancelled his op. It happens. I understand your frustration, though.

We now have over 70 million people living here so what do folk expect.
And overall NHS bed numbers have been reduced.

I recall when the new hospital ( PFI) was built in Pboro the bed numbers were reduced by over 300. And that was for city growing in numbers.
Strategic planning doesn’t appear to exist or there are Numpties doing it.

I think the “planners” were anticipating that with increased tech the post-op stays were going to be shorter but conversely didn’t allow for an aging population and increasing migration.

We now simply have too many managers generatng stats, fulfilling compliance procedures etc etc and insufficient hands on staff.
Managers just make jobs for more managers. It’s a self perpetuating circle until it implodes thru cost.

Our NHS model is dead and needs completely rebuilding by looking at other EU models.

What is your experience if running a nationwide organisation?

You are just demonstrating how little you actually understand about the NHS

I’ll refer you back to a previous point………an airline doesn’t compensate for issues like the weather - why would the NHS (a not for profit organisation unlike an airline) be expected to compensate someone for something outside of their control.

I think you’d be better off looking at all the wasted appointments when people decide not to turn up - so others are waiting longer - should those people be charged? Even if it’s something outside of their control?

And the so little you talk about with regards to costs? Those millions of pounds could pay for more staff, equipment, buildings etc rather than M&S vouchers for someone whose surgery was cancelled because someone else almost died. I imagine the majority of the population would prefer most staff etc

Why is your employer grumpy?

(1) A large regional organisation
(2) We have NHS contracts
(3) For the aformentioned reasons, which you don't appear to have read
(4) I'm open to discussion about people being charged for missing appointments
(5) Those millions of pounds could run the NHS for 40 minutes
(6) More staff doesn't necessarily mean a better service.

Having worked with NHS staff, some of them seem to have very little insight for how much the service costs for delivery.

Mum was on her way to have her leg amputated. Lift doors to theatre corridor opened to say it was off. They had discovered she had a titanium rod in her thigh. The one they had put in 5 years earlier in that very ward.

Seeing the bigger picture means seeing how this idea could cause worse outcomes for many people. You'd be incentivising poorer care on the basis that it would take too long to look after the more complex/higher risk cases in case cancellations were necessary and it came out of those senior people's pockets.