NORTH Cumbria Integrated Care (NCIC) Trust has apologised for the 'difficulties' caused by a rise in cancelled operations.

The response from NCIC comes as new NHS England data shows that 125 elective operations were cancelled at the last minute in the three months to December.

This figure was up from 82 in the previous quarter, and the highest since October to December 2021, when data collecting was resumed after the pandemic.

It meant a total of 422 operations were cancelled on the day the patient arrived at hospital, after they arrived, or on the day of the operation itself in 2022.

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A NCIC spokesperson said: "We understand how frustrating this is for our patients and we are sorry for the difficulties this has caused. 

"It is not a decision we take lightly and is always our last resort."

This data also showed that, nationally, 4,590 patients were forced to wait more than 28 days to be treated following their operation being cancelled in the three months to December, up from 4,150 in the previous quarter.

Of these, 39 were at the North Cumbria Integrated Care Trust, up from 30 the previous quarter.

The NCIC spokesperson said: "Like all parts of the NHS, we were exceptionally pressured in the run up to Christmas for a combination of reasons. 

"This includes higher numbers of attendances and admissions including presentations of infections including flu, covid-19 and strep A. 

"We saw very high numbers patients in hospital who were waiting for a care package to be discharged. 

"We also implemented our contingency plans for the industrial action by ambulance service colleagues to create more space in Accident & Emergency. 

"All of this meant that unfortunately some planned operations had to be postponed in order to keep our patients safe."

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In addition, NCIC detailed the steps that have been taken to ensure that the number of operations cancelled and treatment waiting times post-cancellations start to come down.

They said: "We have seen an overall improvement in our elective recovery plan.

"We have eliminated 104 week waits and reduced the number of 52 week waits by 65 per cent since March 2021.

"In November 2021 we opened a new modular unit at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle which led to 68 per cent drop in waiting times for endoscopy. "