Covid-19: Vaccination plea after cancer surgeries cancelled

The cancellation of some cancer surgeries is a "direct effect" of people not getting vaccinated against Covid, the Belfast Health Trust's medical director has said.

On Wednesday the Trust announced it was cancelling some surgeries due to Covid-19 pressures.

Dr Chris Hagan said those pressures were a result of rising infections due to unvaccinated people.

He apologised and said rescheduling of the operations had started.

He said about 24 patients were affected.

The Health and Social Care Board's Paul Cavanagh later told Stormont's health committee that 120 surgeries of all types have been cancelled this week.

Dr Hagan told BBC's Good Morning Ulster it was really important to highlight why this had happened.

"Last week we were sitting with about 50 Covid patients in our hospitals, that has now risen to over 100," he said.

"There is enormous pressure on our intensive care units with 10 patients in our intensive care, seven of whom are ventilated.

"It is really important we get that message across that not taking up vaccine is driving infection in the community and that choice not to get vaccinated is then leading on to direct effects like this."

He added: "I just want to apologise that we have had to do this, it is a terrible thing to have to cancel people who are expecting surgery, at the last minute.

"But I want to reassure the public that we will try and reschedule all these operations as quickly as possible."

Meanwhile, Mr Cavanagh told the health committee about 1,800 healthcare staff in Northern Ireland were off work due to Covid.

The head of the vaccination programme in Northern Ireland, Patricia Donnelly, told members of Stormont's health committee on Thursday that uptake among the 18-29 age group was "incredibly slow".

She said it was a cause of "enormous concern" that the pace of the vaccination programme "went off a cliff" in June when it opened to this younger age group.

Just under 60% of 18-29 year olds have received a first jab.

The next lowest uptake rate is 70% for the 30-39 year olds. All the age cohorts over the age of 60 have a 100% uptake rate.

She said while 90,000 people a week were getting vaccinated earlier in the roll-out, the programme has slowed to the extent where it would be "lucky" if 1,000 to 2,000 people were getting jabbed each day.

The chief executive of Action Cancer said he was "sickened" and "disappointed" by the surgery cancellations.

Gareth Kirk said it was a "critical situation" and was "cruel" for cancer patients.

"That is hard, having got a cancer diagnosis, it is tough psychologically building up to the time of your surgery - your treatment is worrying and it is stressful and then to be led up probably to the top of the mountain and then taken down again is cruel," he said.

Prof Mark Taylor, from the Royal College of Surgeons, said the postponement of "potentially life-saving cancer surgeries" was "extremely worrying".

"In May, we published an action plan for tackling NI's waiting times that focused on protecting planned surgery from future stoppages due to Covid-19 surges or winter flu season," he said.

"We called for greater investment, Covid-light sites and surgical hubs to help keep surgery going and spoke about patients and surgeons being ready to travel if it means getting surgery done quicker."

Cancer surgery is continuing in the Northern and Southern trusts, BBC News NI understands.

But it is understood one cancer-related procedure due to take place in the South Eastern Trust area this week has also been cancelled.

The Western Trust said it had to delay 39 procedures, but that no cancer surgeries had been cancelled.

Of those 39, 38 have now either taken place or are booked for a new date.

It comes just a month after Health Minister Robin Swann published a three-year recovery plan for rebuilding cancer services post-pandemic.

Surgery in cancer can be time-critical - the speed at which a patient gets their procedure may have an impact on their prognosis.

On Thursday, another 1,471 positive coronavirus cases were reported by the Department of Health - down from 1,600 on Wednesday.

This includes samples taken in recent days, not necessarily in the past 24 hours.

Two further deaths were also reported.

There are 234 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of Covid-19 in hospitals in Northern Ireland. That figure is down from Wednesday's total of 244 patients.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said they "deeply regret the rescheduling of any surgery and recognise the deep distress caused to patients".

They said the move was "unavoidable" given the rise in ICU occupancy and Covid-19 inpatients.

The spokesperson said the department remained committed to the aim of maximising elective surgery across the region and the position would be kept under review.