Thousands of operations cancelled despite delay to junior doctors strike

There has been little time to reschedule thousands of cancelled procedures Credit: PA

Thousands of patients across England have had operations and appointments cancelled despite a strike by junior doctors being called off.

While a temporary agreement reached with the government means the planned three-day strike - which would have started at 8am today - has been called off, thousands procedures have been cancelled.

At the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust in London, around 35 operations have been cancelled and rearranged - around 30% of the total - alongside around 50 outpatient appointments.

St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in London has also cancelled and rescheduled 40 non-urgent operations.

Elsewhere:

  • At Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, 90 out of 624 operations have been cancelled and are being rescheduled, alongside 565 out of around 5,000 outpatient appointments.

  • Weston Area Health NHS Trust has cancelled around 120 out of 320 planned outpatient appointments alongside 12 non-urgent operations. The trust stopped booking operations when the BMA ballot came back as a Yes vote.

  • University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust has cancelled and rebooked 68 inpatient appointments and planned operations (18% of activity) together with 740 outpatient appointments (16%).

  • Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has cancelled 40 operations and 400 outpatient appointments and will rebook them.

  • Airedale NHS Foundation Trust has cancelled 80% of planned operations. The trust is rescheduling 100 elective procedures or operations - 30 inpatients and 70 day cases.

Credit: PA

  • At Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, around a dozen operations have been postponed together with a "number of outpatient clinics".

  • Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has cancelled 345 outpatient appointments at its main hospital and 25 at Cromer - around a third of the total. Eleven planned operations - less than 10% of the total - have also been dropped.

  • University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust said 24 operations had been cancelled alongside 178 outpatient appointments and procedures.

  • South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust said four operations had been cancelled, with three rearranged, alongside 65 outpatient appointments, all rearranged.

  • Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust said it was cancelling a "very small" number of clinics (11% of appointments) and non-urgent procedures (7%).

Planned industrial action by junior doctors has been called off Credit: PA

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told MPs on Monday that NHS England had estimated that up to 20,000 patients may have operations cancelled across all three days of planned action.

These included around 1,500 cataract operations, 900 skin lesion removals, 630 hip and knee operations, 400 spine operations, 250 gall bladder removals and nearly 300 tonsil and grommets operations.