MP urges Government to reverse health cuts after thousands of operations cancelled at last minute

Local MP Tim Farron has urged the Government to stop starving the NHS of funds after new figures revealed that over 2,000 operations in South Cumbria and North Lancashire have been cancelled at the last minute because of non-clinical reasons.

A Freedom of Information request sent to the Morecambe Bay Hospitals Trust from Tim's office showed that from January 2013 to September this year, 2,373 operations had been cancelled in the three days before an operation for non-clinical reasons.

According to the NHS website, non-clinical reasons for hospitals cancelling operations include:

• no beds are available on the ward
• no critical care beds are available
• staff are not available, such as the surgeon, anaesthetist or operating theatre staff
• an emergency case had to take priority in the operating theatre
• operations took longer than expected, so the list of operations over-ran
• some equipment isn't working
• there has been an administrative error

Tim said: "Staff at our local hospitals do an amazing job taking care of us.

"But for reasons that are out of their hands, over 2,000 local people have had potentially life-changing operations cancelled just days before they were due to take place.

"Last minute cancellations cause a great deal of unnecessary stress and anxiety for local people.

"These figures are a strong reminder that that our NHS needs more funding not less.

"The Government must scrap its plans to cut £572m from our local health services over the next three years, otherwise there will be lots more unnecessary cancelled operations in the future."