Politics

Labour say NHS equipment failure and staffing crisis fuel 78,981 axed operations


NHS equipment failures and a staffing crisis fuelled a surge in cancelled operations, Labour has revealed.

Some 78,981 operations were axed in the last year, according to data unearthed using freedom of information rules.

The planned ops were either classed as urgent or were elective operations scrapped at the last minute – either on the day the patient was due to arrive in hospital or after they had already turned up.

The number of operations shelved because of staffing issues and equipment failures has climbed by a third in two years.

Last year, 10,909 were postponed because of staffing issues compared with 8,231 in 2016/17.

Some 4,858 were because of equipment failures compared with 3,739 two years earlier, Labour said.

There are more than 100,000 staff vacancies in the NHS in England, with shortages of 10,000 doctors and 43,000 nurses.

Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “That so many more people in pain and distress are forced to endure cancelled operations, including increasingly on the day they were supposed to have treatment, is a shameful indictment of a decade of Tory cutbacks running our NHS into the ground.

“The simple truth is under the Tories, patients wait longer and longer for vital care.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has angered the BMA with his handling of the health service

 

“This general election is about the future of the NHS and ensuring quality care for all.”

Labour uncovered the figures through freedom of information requests to all acute hospital trusts in England.

They were asked o provide the number of operations cancelled for non-clinical reasons, broken down by the cause of the cancellation.

Four-fifths of trusts responded.

It came after doctors accused Boris Johnson of only recognising an “unprecedented” looming NHS winter crisis because of fears it will hamper the Tories’ general election chances.

Jon Ashworth said the Tories were failing patients

 

With the country gearing up for its first December ballot since 1923, Downing Street was said to be taking emergency measures to minimise the effects of winter pressures on the health system.

British Medical Association council chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul said: “Under this Government’s watch, patients and staff working in the NHS have endured winter after winter of overcrowded emergency departments, long delays and pitifully low staffing levels.

“It should not take an election to take stock of just how bad the situation has become.

“Staff are already coming under extreme pressure, trolley waits are at a worryingly high level, A&E targets are not being met and, as such, the BMA predicts that the NHS is hurtling towards an unprecedented crisis this winter.”





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