Prayers up for this little girl...
Excerpt of article:
A three-year-old girl awaiting heart surgery has had her operation cancelled three times this month because of a shortage of beds.
Ella Cotterell was due to have aorta-widening surgery on Monday at the Children’s Hospital, Bristol. But 48 hours beforehand, the operation was cancelled for the third time as all 15 beds in the intensive care unit were occupied, her parents said.
A hospital spokesman said that procedures would be reviewed, but the case highlights a growing problem of cancelled operations in the NHS (UK's National Health Service).
More than 57,000 surgeries were postponed for non-clinical reasons, including a lack of beds, last year – 10 per cent more than the previous year.
Latest figures show that the problem persists. At least 43,000 operations were cancelled in the first nine months of 2008-09, with nearly 1,800 patients not being treated within 28 days of their original scheduled date...
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