The West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust has recently announced they are to introduce a short-stay surgery unit in a bid to tackle the worrying upward trend in the number of cancelled operations.

David Ruffley recently highlighted this issue when he asked the Health Secretary about the level of operations being cancelled at the last minute, for non clinical reasons, at the West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust. He got an amazing reply. For the last two quarters of 2003/04 alone there were over 300 cancelled operations. This is 50% higher than the figure for the entire previous year. The latest figures from the Trust show this has continued to be a problem throughout the second half of this year.

David said:

'I welcome the addition of this service at the West Suffolk Hospital. I am glad that they are now reacting to what is a serious problem and hope that the introduction of this new short-stay surgery is of real benefit to my constituents. I was given an assurance from the Chief Executive, Chris Bown, on the 8th October, that the Trust was 'to investigate all cancelled operations to 'route cause' the reasons for cancellations and to recommend actions that can be made to ensure that the situation improves'. I am extremely pleased if my Commons questioning, in any way, encouraged the NHS management to take action.'