PEH bed crisis sees patient’s cancer surgery postponed

In total, at least 20 surgical procedures were pushed back to a later date, including 13 orthopaedic procedures and six which required other types of non-emergency surgery.

In response to a question from the Guernsey Press, Health & Social Care said there were currently 14 beds at the hospital occupied by patients who should ideally be in long-term care accommodation – a sector which itself faces a serious capacity problem.

Health officials initially said that all emergency and cancer surgery would go ahead and continue to be prioritised.

But later in the day they announced that intention had been defeated by a worsening shortage of beds at the PEH.

‘We will continue to prioritise emergency surgery and elective cancer surgery. However, we did reluctantly have to postpone one cancer surgery due to lack of a critical care bed for them,’ an HSC spokesman said.

Beds at the hospital have been under intense pressure recently and HSC warned that other patients may have their surgery postponed.

‘There are 113 beds at the PEH, excluding De Havilland ward, and the hospital has run at capacity for the last two weeks,’ said the spokesman.

‘There may be further disruption to elective surgeries in the coming days until the capacity issues have resolved.’

A recent report on secondary health care revealed that waiting lists were so long – particularly in orthopaedics and gastroenterology – that four out of 10 patients were unable to see consultants or doctors within waiting times set out in the States’ contract with the Medical Specialist Group, although soaring demand has led to more patients being seen overall.

De Havilland ward, opened in 2022, was meant to be ring-fenced for orthopaedic patients, but pressure on beds in other parts of the hospital has become so great that part of that ward is currently being used for other surgical patients.

Other emergency measures used temporarily could not prevent the postponement of surgery yesterday.

‘Additional temporary beds, called flex beds, have been utilised but cannot be used for longer than a short-term fix, which is why the difficult decision has been taken to postpone some elective surgery,’ said the spokesman.

‘Teams have worked tirelessly to minimise the numbers of postponed elective surgery. HSC recognises it is always disappointing when elective surgery has to be postponed and apologises for the impact this has on individuals and their families.’

HSC said ‘no single factor’ was behind the pressure on hospital beds and described the problem as ‘a seasonal issue with demand outstripping available capacity’.

It added that further updates would be provided once the availability of beds had improved.