Last-minute operation cancellations rise by 50% in Staffordshire

From July to September at hospitals in Cannock and Stafford, some 113 patients had their operations cancelled on the day of surgery, up from 74 during the same period the previous year.

Across the West Midlands there was a 15 per cent increase in last minute cancelled operations, with 283 more cancellations during that period.

The cancellations happened when the hospitals were run by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which has now been dissolved.

Stafford Hospital is now known as the County Hospital and is run by the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust.

Consultant-led maternity and children's services will be moved to Stoke in the next few months, as well as acute and major inpatient surgery.

And Cannock Hospital has been taken over by the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust.

Cannock councillor and Labour parliamentary candidate Janos Toth, who obtained the figures, said: "As new trusts takes over from Mid Staffs we need to make sure that local patients get a fair deal.

"It isn't right that people in Cannock Chase have faced a far higher increase than the rest of the region has in last minute cancelled operations.

"People are not only waiting longer for operations but more and more people now face the appalling anxiety of preparing for treatment only to be let down just hours before surgery."

As part of the takeover, The County Hospital will get a new MRI scanner, possibly a new eye surgery unit and a frail elderly assessment service.

Stafford's name was changed because bosses said the name Stafford had been tainted following the Stafford Hospital scandal and that clinical staff did not want to work there.

Outpatient facilities will be expanded, wards will be refurbished and a new theatre opened.

The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust declined to comment as it was not responsible for Stafford at the time of the figures.

But health watchdog, Monitor, which oversaw the overhaul of services at Mid Staffs, have said the trust was 'fragile' at the time and that the figures prove changes were needed.

Spokesman Kirk Ward said: "Patients should not have to deal with the uncertainty and anxiety of cancelled operations.

"The number of cancelled operations at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust is further evidence of how fragile the organisation was and why the special administration process was needed to create safe and sustainable services for the people of Stafford."