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

[TheOpalFox]

Would you be annoyed if you travelled an hour to go to your operation… and you had the gown on and socks and they cancelled ???????? Due to staff issues. ? :(

I’ve been on both sides of this - having an op cancelled at the last minute due to an emergency coming in, and also being that emergency case bumping other people.

I am so grateful to have surgery done safely and successfully that I recognise sometimes that means postponing an elective case to make way for something more urgent. I would far rather reschedule an elective op than have it done unsafely. Being well enough to wait for a new date makes me much better off than the poor sod who’s been rushed in and taken my place.

It's shocking that it's so common, yes. Not shocking in a 'oh my word, I've never heard of this happening!'. The very fact people are so blase about it because they've come to expect it is... shocking. We're not in the middle of a pandemic anymore. Patients deserve better.

Imagine having your op cancelled after a round of bowel prep due to an admin error….

😬💩

I was in waiting room with about 10 other patients and this happened to them (my was urgent due to aggressive cancer) but I really felt for them as they’d geared themselves up.

People seem to be accepting of it but it happens all the time. I’m not sure if it happens so often in other countries.

I caused an operating list to be cancelled once. I was having quite a big operation, but there was complications, I bled more than expected, my BP a dropped to my boots and my heart rate went very peculiar. The surgeon stayed in the hospital until 11pm that night with me and DH, and I had an overnight stay in ICU. The next day the anaesthetist came to see me and told me I’d given them all a huge scare.

None of this was predictable. I’d had the same surgery 2 years before, and other than a drop in BP which always happens when I have a GA, I was absolutely fine and back on the ward a couple of hours later.

I, also, remember DS2 telling me, when he was a newly qualified staff nurse in A&E, how he’d ran to theatres with a very sick patient otherwise they’d have died, because it was time critical. Hospitals have emergencies like that all the time. The staff aren’t sitting out in the sun.

Sorry op. I think it is actually quite common.

I had a 7 month wait for my gallbladder op, then the date was changed 4 times. It was almost cancelled on the day while i was there as the hospital had a power cut.

There are far more staff in the operating theatre and post-surgical recovery than just a doctor. Any number of staff could have been taken ill, called out elsewhere at any point of the process. Most issues with cancelled surgeries happen due to lack of surgical recovery beds, ICU beds or not enough staff on wards to care for surgical patients safely.
For example, if someone was due to be discharged and OP was earmarked for that recovery bed, and then hospital transport didn't show, or care home failed to arrange something on time, or relatives refused to collect and DC needed to get involved... these things happen far more often than we'd like to think.

This happened to me with my cat 3 emergency c-section. Sat waiting all day in gown and desperate for a drink. Kept being told any minute now. Finally at 11pm I was told I could get back into my pyjamas and eat something but had to be nil by mouth again at midnight. By the time I had my c-section my waters had been gone for more than 48 hours so me and baby had to have antibiotics.

They deserve safe operations, yes. Not operations carried out without all the staff present for the sake of getting it done.

What would your solution be? Would you recommend employing a whole extra team of medical professionals each day to absorb the emergencies, illness and overruns but otherwise sit around?

Thats madness. They must have known staffing levels before getting you ready??
Staff issues can be many different things. The surgeon has suddenly vomited and feeling dizzy. The lead nurse got a call from nursery to say her baby has a high fever. Another got a call that her husband got taken to hospital.

It's fascinating how people always expect flexibility from their manager when they experience an unexpected event but when it affects them, it's an outrage.

Yes, it's not nice when this happens. Sadly some situations can't be avoided.

And what? What is your solution?

My trusted decided no to pay overtime to staff for doing extra hours and matron placed the hours on the schedule time of. No one could ask for the extra time spent fitting thir plans.

I stopped helping out and yes, things were cancelled. I wasn't the only one to say enough. In the end I left.

About 15 years ago I was in hospital with appendicitis. Told I would go down at midday.
There was a major catastrophe in theatre - surgeons had to come in from across London to save someone's life. Staffing issues - the specialists on duty were all drafted in to save this woman's life. I was lucky and finally went down at some point after midnight. I was also critically ill so they had to see me but a gynaecology patient bleeding out took precedence. I imagine that someone less ill was bumped completely in order to save my life.

Shit happens

It is awful that this has happened but its not about who's time is more valuable. Often these surgeries are bumped due to the theatre or surgeon being needed for an emergency case- no one can argue an elective case should take priority over a life/limb saving surgery. It was clearly unexpected as the staff wouldn't have made OP get changed and ready if it was likely to be cancelled. Sometimes unforseen things happen and whilst it is shit for OP, the hospital cannot magic up resources on the spot!

You aren't unreasonable to be annoyed, it's frustrating. It sounds like either a previous surgery was taking longer than expected or an emergency came in which means they have to cancel less urgent surgeries.

I hope you can have your surgery soon.

I caused a full day of cancellations and felt awful. I was first down, meant to be a 3hr day case
she actually operated from 9.30am - 6pm on me and had to get a bowel surgeon in for 3hrs too. I think she had 2 other ops that day but obviously she couldn’t do them

My child had to have an important but not super urgent major operation when she was 4. It was booked the day before - we’d been waiting 18 months so took the slot thought it meant a lot of logistics. It was then cancelled 3x, the first two before we’d travelled, the last once we’d sat around the ward and stayed overnight, then had our 4 year old nil by mouth (and raging about it) for 9 hours. I can’t tell you how difficult and frustrating that was.

the reason was that the previous operation had gone wrong and taken far longer than expected. My daughter had hers a week later, was discharged a week after that, when we went in 2 weeks after that for a check up we saw the girl who’s surgery had overrun, she was still on high dependency and expecting to be in for months. I felt very bad for being so cross about my daughters operation being cancelled cos the other girls situation was so much worse.

Honestly, I've been the mother of the child who needed emergency surgery and very likely cancelled many other elective surgeries. He was in intensive care for 7 weeks and in hospital for 10 months in total.

But I've also been the parent of the child who is doing much better, the surgery isn't an emergency and he is also furious because he's hungry and it is completely understandable to be stressed and frustrated.

Don't feel bad for feeling a perfectly normal emotion. xx

This is why they will never charge the public for missed appointments

Another non driver here. Taxi fare to my hospital is £40 each way.. I couldnt afford to keep paying this out

I know how frustrating it is for the patients but trust me the last thing the hospital wants to do is cancel on the day. Hospital cancellations on the day are heavily monitored and are subject to certain rebooking rules. The trust will be fined if the patients are not appropriately rebooked and treated. It's always absolutely unavoidable, usually either due to another emergency, an earlier procedure being more complicated and therefore overrunning or general bed pressures in the hospital.

Also it's not fun for the staff who have to tell the patients either. I've been shouted at and verbally abused, and worse had people break down in tears, all of which are unpleasant but understandable

So what’s your solution? Have a team of staff sitting around in case an emergency comes in so routine cases don’t need to be bumped?

it’s not necessarily because the nhs is a “shit show” or badly organised, but simply an emergent situation has arisen that requires redeployment of key staff.

elective c-sections often get postponed if there’s an emergency. What’s the alternative? Let the baby/mum die so the electives can go ahead as planned? Keep an extra anaesthetist and surgical team on standby at all times for every specialty? Any idea how much that would cost?

I worked in a hospital and they don’t bump planned surgeries for shits and giggles. It’s usually because some else is about to die, so gets to the head of the queue.

doesn’t make it any less frustrating though.

I was gowned up, on the operating table, drugs coursing through me and adrenaline spiking, legs pulled apart in stirrups and the doctor suddenly turned around and said “can’t do this” so everything was cancelled.
It is disgusting that they do this to people with health problems.

Of course it's frustrating. However the v likely reason was either that an urgent case came in and took your slot, or the surgeon who was supposed to do it had to attend when they were on call/had an op overrun so can't safely continue working.
If it's a gynae op as PP suggested, an emergency c-section (risk to life of mum and baby) or a PPH (risk to woman's life) could have been what took "your" slot/surgeon.
You never want to be the most urgent case in the hospital!

Yes, this - you would need multiple empty theatres and multiple surgical teams (the surgeons, nurses, ODAs etc) encompassing multiple specialties (obstetrics, general surgery, neuro surgery, orthopaedics, vascular, cardio thoracics to name just a few) plus empty ITU beds with intensivists, ITU nurses sitting on standby for an emergency in their specialty…to ensure every elective case goes ahead.
The costs would be mind blowing.

Sorry to say but I think the NHS is a complete shit show. Endo problems here. Been fighting tooth and nail for years. Been suffering since I was 14.. Either wouldn’t do anything because I’m in fertile years. Wouldn’t do anything when I was over 40 as what was the point…I’d be hitting menopause soon. Try this drug, try the painkiller. Ok we’ll put you on the list. 18 months later, Oh we lost all your medical notes so you’ll have to start the process again. Changed Gp’s, 18months wait after that, Operation cancelled on the way to hospital, then acted like I was a massive inconvenience because I couldn’t say yes to their random new date being self employed.
Zero empathy. I’m done pretending that we should all be grateful. Chronic pain for years and being messed about will do that to you.
That’s my moan, also that private medical insurance like Aviva refuses to include endometriosis. The whole system winds me up.