September 30, 2022 9.22 am This story is over 21 months old

Woman frustrated as urgent appointment at Grimsby hospital cancelled

Outpatient appointments and elective surgical procedures were cancelled

A woman who has been waiting over six months for an urgent treatment appointment Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby was left feeling frustrated when she turned up to find out it had been cancelled.

Ronni Brown told BBC Look North has been worrying about a cyst on her left ovary the size of a lemon, which has been there for around 10 months.

She had been waiting for her urgent appointment since February and earlier this week she was expecting to be in hospital on Tuesday to find out if she could have it treated, but unfortunately couldn’t be seen.

The Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, announced on Monday that it was experiencing “extremely high levels of demand”. Grimsby’s A&E was so busy since the weekend that the hospital had run out of beds to move patients to so cancellations were its only option.

Ronni Brown turned up at hospital to find out her appointment had been cancelled. | Screenshot: BBC Look North

Ronni told BBC Look North: “I went there at 7.30am which was my appointment time we waited in there for abut an hour until someone actually came to see us. At that point she was like ‘all operations are cancelled so you shouldn’t be here and you should’ve got a call last night’, but we hadn’t been called so I’ve sort of been left in the dark.”

Shaun Stacey, Chief Operating Officer at Northern Lincolnshire & Goole NHS Foundation Trust, said: “That (cancelled appointments) has enabled us to open up another ward area and to be able to staff that ward area by releasing staff that would otherwise be involved in that planned treatment for those patients

“We’ve got exceptional demand and exceptional numbers and we have to be able to look after people in a safe way.”