The NHS has said that non-urgent operations are to be cancelled at Musgrove Park Hospital to allow medical staff to focus on the Coronavirus outbreak instead.
It says that from April 15th, non-urgent elective operations will be postponed for at least three months, and others scheduled before that may also be moved as effort is focused on Covid-19 related care and treatment.
The NHS does stress, however, that people receiving Cancer treatment can be assured that this will continue unaffected.
An NHS spokesperson said in a statement this week: “As the Chief Medical Officer has stated, NHS services are likely to come under intense pressure as the Coronavirus spreads, and we need to ensure that we have as many beds available as possible to care for patients with severe respiratory problems when the number of infections peaks.”
“Therefore, in line with well-established plans for situations like this, every hospital in England has now been asked to suspend all non-urgent elective operations from April 15th for at least three months, with some other procedures likely to be rescheduled before then so we can train our staff and adapt certain areas.
“Urgent and emergency cases and cancer treatments will be carrying on as normal, but we know many people waiting for treatment will be disappointed or worried, and we will be contacting everyone affected as soon as possible.”
