Cancelled hospital visits rise

People awaiting treatment were left in distress after more then 7,800 outpatient appointments were cancelled twice and rearranged at the trust which runs Pinderfields Hospital last year.

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust saw cancellations increase after setting a target to reduce the problem by 30 per cent.

David Hutchinson, vice chairman of health watchdog Wakefield LINk, said: “Patients have reported to us saying they found it disrupting to have appointments cancelled two or three times.”

“There are more patients than there are appointments. The solution at the end of the day is more appointments.”

A trust report said in 2010-11, 7,360 appointments were cancelled twice. The figure rose to 7,882 last year.

The report said: “We seriously failed to deliver this quality improvement priority and have identified the need to carry the objective through into 2012-13.”

Carole Langrick, Mid Yorkshire’s chief operating officer, said the trust was working to reduce cancellations.

She said: “We know that rescheduling of review appointments has been an issue and we fully understand how inconvenient this is for patients and their families or carers.”

Separate figures released this week which showed the district’s Primary Care Trust (PCT) has restrictions on non-urgent operations, leading to claims that care is being rationed to save cash.

Limits are in place on referrals for cataracts operations, joint replacements, having tonsils out and bariatric surgery.

Wakefield MP Mary Creagh said the PCT had been ordered to cut £24m from frontline services to pay for NHS reforms.

She said: “I am deeply concerned that people in Wakefield may not be able to get much needed hip replacements or cataract surgery because the health service locally has to save money.”

But PCT bosses said the limits were in place to make sure people had the right surgery at the right time, and were not financially driven.