114 operations cancelled in just 12 days at Walsall Manor Hospital

Health watchdogs have called for an investigation after raising concerns patients were subjected to additional anxiety and inconvenience – with some being told of cancellations at short notice.

There were 114 non-urgent elective procedures cancelled between Monday, March 20, and Friday, March 31.

Work preparing a new intensive treatment unit was also blamed for the postponements along with staff shortages.

Healthwatch Walsall has referred the matter to Walsall Council's health scrutiny group requesting members delve into the matter further.

They have also issued an appeal to patients affected to get in touch and speak out about their experiences.

Simon Fogell, chief officer for Healthwatch Walsall, said: "Most pre-planned elective surgery at the hospital was cancelled at the end of March and many of those affected were told only one or two weeks before.

"We have now received assurances from the trust that no-one's health was made worse by the delays, but we're very keen to monitor this on behalf of the public."

Amir Khan, Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust medical director, said: "We would like to apologise to anyone affected by the cancellation of non-urgent surgery as we appreciate that it can cause anxiety and is an inconvenience when patients, carers and families have had to make plans.

"We want to assure patients that such a decision is never taken lightly.

"We took the decision to scale back non-clinically urgent planned surgery for a short period for two reasons – we needed to make changes in preparation for the work on our new Critical Care Unit and we were struggling to staff all the beds we had open in surgery without using large numbers of agency staff.

"No urgent cases or cancer surgery were cancelled and the majority of the operations have now been rescheduled to take place before the end of this month."