What non essential operations are being cancelled in some hospitals?

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Genuine question

Don't slate me, I'm genuinely wondering.

Surely if an operation wasn’t deemed ‘essential’ by the NHS they wouldn’t be carried out in the first place? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Oh sorry I meant non essential

I said that bit wrong in my title sorry

They mean anything that’s not life threatening should it not go ahead immediately. Things like knee replacements.

Posted too soon- anything that they can put off to a letter date really.

Elective does not mean non essential!

I know of one lady who has had her hip replacement cancelled, and one lady who has had cancer treatment cancelled. I don't know exactly what treatment the second lady is waiting for, it's a neighbour and I didn't want to be intrusive.

Later, ffs. I’m going back to my coffee!

cancellation of operations in Birmingham and Manchester. Opeerations that can be postponed, but may leave the patient in pain for longer or cause a deterioration of their condition such that it will always be worse than it would have been with prompt treatment.

No staff

I think more operations should be going ahead. The reasons why some, they are not going ahead are often pitiful.

I know for a fact that operations for prostrate are not happening. The consultant isn't even doing clinics. No zoom, no appointments, nothing. Till Feb 21. That'll be a year then, since covid started in Feb 20. How this is acceptable I'll never know.

My Dsister waited 7 months for her op to have a biopsy for lymphoma. Three and a half weeks still no results, three missed phone consultations.

Not missed by her waited all day each time with phone on.

DH has been waiting for keyhole surgery to remove a large kidney stone, since January 2020. He's scheduled for the end of November, but that letter arrived a week before our NHS Trust announced that they are "pausing" elective surgery; so we anticipate another letter this week to tell him that he has to wait even longer. Meanwhile the stone grows ever larger, and will eventually see him admitted through A&E as an emergency case.

Of the people I know who have had operations postponed, it's been things like hernia repair, gastroscope, or chiari malformation repair. Whereas time sensitive stuff like brain tumour removal go ahead.

Operational manager in nhs here, though on May leave so not sure what exactly is happening but just to explain I assume they will prioritise urgent life and limb operations first. All else than can safely be postponed will be. Which is awful for the patients but back in March/April when we did this there simply wasn't the staff to run theatre lists and ITU (before it had to be expanded) and surgical wards were taken up with medical/covid patients so no where to recover.

Also when having an op your immune system gets compromised which makes you more susceptible to viruses etc therefore more likely to contract and be ill with nasty things. Furthermore many patients once discharged need care in the community by district nurses or family, which again increases the risk.

Medical, nursing, radiology and physio/occupational therapists are not immune to the virus and many get sick or have kids exposed and have to isolate so staff sickness is at a record high. Because of the risks of contracting covid we saw our bank and agency medical and nursing uptake plummet, there just wasn't the staff available!

Really heart braking for those desperate for their ops and I sympathise totally (haven given birth during pandemic) but there's not a lot of option.

These people claiming hospitals are empty are bonkers. They're not.

In Northern Ireland my DB is waiting on surgery to plate a broken collar bone, already been over 2 years, Will now be another 2.

Due to bone setting wrongly he now needs a bone graft as well as plates - bone graft will have to come from hip bone.

My Dad is waiting for open heart surgery that was due to happen in April. Still no rescheduled date. It’s very worrying.

It all depends on where you are. We're in a low COVID area and it's mostly business as usual. We usually do approx 25 routine electives a week in my department. Last week we had 2 cancelled due to bed shortages, the rest went ahead. Some lists have been cancelled in other departments due to staff being ill/isolating.

These things happen unfortunately and obviously routine surgery is the first to go

Oh also lots of my doctors who normally wouldn't be on the ward more than once a week had all their clinics cancelled initially to redeploy them on the ward to treat people quicker and discharge faster to keep creating space. Consultants are the decision makers, so regardless of how many other docs are around it's the consultant who signs off the plans and sets the juniors on with tasks. That's why seemingly non - covid related docs had clinics cancelled.

Scopes were initially all cancelled especially colonoscopies as there was initial evidence that the virus was transmitted also through fecal matter though I think that's been disproven now.

It's truly awful for patients but I promise docs aren't sitting around doing nothing. Ward roybds take twice as long because of the donning and doffing of PPE fir each patient.

I know local person who was supposed to get an ankle replacement in ~April. This has been post-poned until further notice. He can barely walk and is in constant pain, on strong painkillers. We are in one of the very lowest covid areas in England. He gets occasional appointments with consultants but I think they are waiting for him to become completely immobilised before his ankle would be prioritsed.

Joint replacements. Gall bladders. Reversal of stomas. Breast reconstruction. Diagnostic laparoscopies for pelvic pain.

Stuff that needs doing. But perhaps doesn't need doing right now.

Whereas cancer operations, immediate things like appendixes or burst aorta will be done

Things like cataract surgery that can be done at a later point without risking an irreversible negative outcome
If the risk of bringing people into a hospital for a procedure is greater than any risk that waiting to carry out the procedure will cause they will be some of the first things postponed
The aim is to keep people safe and also ensure capacity for stuff that cannot wait
Often if routine stuff is going ahead it's much slower as operating lists will be shortened to allow for more time to clean in between procedures and the need to socially distance patients who are waiting for their procedure

ENT and Maxillofacial/Oral Surgeries in my area. Along with pretty much all paediatric operations. My child's surgery was cancelled a couple of weeks ago a day before it was due to take place

The waiting list for elective gynae surgery is now two years in my local hospital.

There was some post covid guidance that was introduced to support prioritisarion of surgical patients from P1 (urgent/emergency) to P4 (can safely wait more than 3 months). It is an unfortunate reality that as the P1s and P2s keep on coming, the P4s have to wait increasingly longer.

fssa.org.uk/covid-19_documents.aspx

Sites that have restricted elective operating in wave 2 will usually be doing some priority cancer cases. There is no intention for the NHS to stop operating altogether as it taking so long to 'turn the ship around'. My hospital is trying hard to maintain the elective programme despite having a high % of covid patients in beds. I dont know how much longer we can sustain this position, and neighbouring trusts have stopped/ reduced their elective programmes.