HUNDREDS OF OPERATIONS CANCELLED DUE TO LACK OF EQUIPMENT

Cut to the bone – surgical services in the local health board area.

By Democrat reporter

A response to a Freedom of Information request has revealed that since 2017, over 400 scheduled operations, that were set to take place within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, have been cancelled due to there being a lack of equipment to carry out the operation.

Seventy operations were cancelled within the Health Board due to a lack of equipment in 2017/18 with a huge number, 335, being cancelled for that reason in 2018/19.

These figures are part of a wider revelation from the FOI request – these have to be used to extract information public bodies will not readily reveal – which showed that over 1000 operations across Scotland had been cancelled due to a lack of equipment.

Jackie Baillie MSP said:  “Operations being cancelled en masse is never acceptable. But cancelling them because of a lack of equipment is utterly shocking.

“Our National Health Service used to have a first class reputation around the world. But this SNP government has allowed it to reach breaking point.

“The First Minister should be ashamed that under her watch, health boards are having to cancel operations because they simply do not have the means to carry them out.

“For the sake of patients’ health needs, urgent action is needed to address this unacceptable situation.”

SNP councillor Jonathan McColl, who represents West Dunbartonshire on the Health Board, refused to comment on the figures.

A table of the FOI findings can be found below: