Non-urgent Operations postponed at Forth Valley Royal Hospital

Non-urgent Operations postponed at Forth Valley Royal Hospital

NHS Forth Valley have announced they are to postpone non-urgent operations – as they struggle with the impact of coronavirus.

There’s been a “significant” rise in Covid-19 infections across the area.

The health board say that’s led to increased pressure at Forth Valley Royal Hospital – and high numbers of staff shortages.

All patients are expected to be given a new date for their surgery within 6 weeks of the original one.

Cathie Cowan, Chief Executive of NHS Forth Valley, said that staff had worked hard to try to avoid taking this action but that it was necessary to protect critical health services. She explained:

“Increasing capacity and Covid related staffing pressures are placing additional strain on already over-stretched local health and care services and we expect these pressures to intensify over the next few weeks. We have therefore taken the difficult decision to postpone some non-urgent operations in order to maintain critical health services. This will free up staff to support areas experiencing significant staffing shortages and increase the number of inpatient beds available to ensure patients who are seriously unwell can continue to receive the vital care they need.”

“I know that this decision will be very disappointing and I would like to apologise to local patients who have had their operation postponed. Everything possible will be done to reschedule the operations affected as quickly as possible and we also plan to review capacity on a weekly basis so that we can restart activity sooner if it is possible to do so.”