Operations cancelled under crisis measures at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals

Routine surgery and some outpatient clinics will be cancelled over an eight-day period as Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust deals with overcrowding and record numbers of emergency admissions.

Hospital staff are contacting patients whose appointments will be cancelled between January 29 and February 6.

Health trusts around the country were previously advised to cancel non-urgent operations under NHS England guidance to help cope with winter demand.

Hull and East Yorkshire chief executive Chris Long said that so far, the trust had managed to avoid cancelling all non-urgent surgery.

But he said: “The time has now come, however, for us to take more extensive action and we owe it to our patients and staff to ensure we are there for the people who need us most.

“While we do not take the decision to cancel operations and outpatient clinics lightly, we are certain the people we care for will fully understand the pressures our NHS is facing and why we have to take further action at this time."

The trust said patients with long-term conditions and those expecting cancer surgery and urgent appointments would not be affected.

The cancellations are among measures planned as part of 'Operation Wintergreen', which will see medical staff re-deployed to help with frontline A&E services at Hull Royal Infirmary.

Under the measures, office staff will also be released from their day jobs to volunteer as 'runners' on wards to help nurses concentrate on patient care.

Mr Long said: “Since the start of the year, we have struggled not only with an increasing number of patients turning up at A&E but also with the complexity and seriousness of their conditions.

“We are not alone in experiencing increasing and intense levels of pressure this winter and most acute hospitals in England are in identical positions."

The trust said its bed occupancy rates had been at more than 95 per cent, way above the 85 per cent recommended safe level. The help free up beds, extra pharmacy staff, porters and physiotherapists were being drafted in so patients could be sent home earlier following treatment.