Children’s operations ‘cancelled in large numbers due to NHS pressures’

Current pressures on the NHS are resulting in a large number of children's operations being cancelled, according to new figures.

Data obtained by the Labour Party through Freedom of Information requests from around half of England's 153 acute hospital trusts has indicated that 46,211 operations for children have been cancelled over the last four years.

A total of 12,349 surgeries for children and young people were cancelled in 2016-17 alone, including procedures to repair broken bones, remove rotten teeth or insert grommets. A lack of beds, staff and equipment was cited as the reason for this trend.

The number of cancelled children's operations last year was 35 percent higher than the 2013-14 figure of 9,128, with the actual total likely to be even higher when taking all of the country's NHS trusts into account.

Professor Neena Modi, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: "These figures are shocking, all the more so as they clearly reflect only the tip of the iceberg, and are further evidence that the NHS is being pushed to the brink."

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