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​Hospital trusts where elective procedures remain on hold

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust said elective surgical procedures ‘are being reviewed on a day-by-day basis’.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundations Trust hoped to resume all its elective work by the end of this week – general surgery and gynaecology are still affected.

Stockport NHS Foundation Trust has not resumed routine orthopedic elective procedures.


Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust is ‘reintroducing routine procedures in a planned way, and our orthopaedic plan will be in place by the end of March,’.

NHS South West Lincolnshire CCG is introducing three-month waits for elective work from some providers as part of its 2017 contract discussions. This does not apply to cancer patients, clinically urgent cases or those treated at the same time as their first appointment.

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust said it expects to postpone around 15% of planned operations at hospitals in Grimsby and Scunthorpe. Some outpatients appointments are also on hold until Friday 23 February.

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust said ‘pressure on beds still remains [but] we are slowly increasing the volume of our elective activity’.


Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust is reviewing planned elective procedures ‘on a daily basis’ .

Bedford Hospitals NHS Trust is reviewing ‘the position daily and will resume full routine elective services as soon as we are able to’.

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London said some procedures were still on hold as it continued to ‘experience high levels of demand and bed occupancy’. Specialist services which do not need beds such as ophthalmology are continuing. ‘This isn’t a blanket cancellation of our elective work,’ a spokesperson added.

A spokesperson for Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust said: ’We are currently delivering elective surgery, which has mainly been day cases, short stay and urgent cases. We are working towards resuming full elective surgery activity from Monday, March 5, 2018.

West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust plans ‘to resume elective activity at Watford General as soon as demand for urgent care returns to more normal levels’. It added that it continues to have a ‘high number of surge and escalation beds occupied’ but ‘most… outpatient activity is returning to normal’.

Source: Pulse media request to all English acute trusts, out of which 86 responded.