Surgery 'cancelled three times'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/bristol/8012056.stm

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A three-year-old Bristol girl awaiting heart surgery has had her operation cancelled three times because of a shortage of beds, her parents claim.

Ella Cotterell was due to have aorta-widening surgery on Monday at the city's Children's Hospital.

The operation was cancelled 48 hours before, for the third time as each of the 15 beds in the intensive care unit was occupied, her parents said.

A hospital spokesman said its procedures would now be reviewed.

Ella needed open heart surgery when she was nine days old and suffered a stroke at 18 months.

The decision to cancel any patient for any procedure is taken extremely seriously ... Michele NareyUniversity Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust

Her parents Ian Cotterell and Rachel Davis were told last October that she would need the operation within 12 to 18 months.

Her surgery was initially planned for 2 April but was cancelled because of emergency cases and rearranged for four days later, the couple said. However, the operation was cancelled again for the same reason, they said.

A third date was arranged for 20 April and last Thursday she went to the hospital for tests.

On Saturday her parents received another call explaining her operation would have to be cancelled.

Michele Narey, of the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, said: "The decision to cancel any patient for any procedure is taken extremely seriously but is sometimes unavoidable because of the need to effectively manage emergency patients requiring beds on a day-to-day basis.

"We know that cancelling procedures can cause additional stress for patients so we will always seek to avoid this wherever possible."

She added it was not possible to discuss individual medical cases.