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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

104 replies

TheOpalFox · 01/05/2026 11:48

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. ? :(

OP posts:
HoppingPavlova · 05/05/2026 10:32

BillieWiper · 01/05/2026 12:13

Yeah that's ridiculous. I guess it's better than the surgeon walking off mid way through the operation?! But it sounds almost like the doctor must've had a heart attack while walking towards the surgery if it had to be cancelled at such short notice?! Bizarre.

I hope it happens really soon!

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.

CarmellaSopranosKitchen · 05/05/2026 11:26

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.

TeenLifeMum · 05/05/2026 17:21

BIossomtoes · 05/05/2026 09:54

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.

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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.

Kirbert2 · 05/05/2026 18:45

Greybeardy · 05/05/2026 10:20

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.

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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.

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