"Inexcusable regard for patients"

I was initially accepted for surgery on the 11th September, which taking into account the NHS 18 week pathway, should have meant that my operation should have been carried out on or before the 15th of January. This date came and went, having still herd nothing, I contacted the hospital at the end of January to be told that I had been pencilled in for the 26th of February. I had my pre op on about the 17th of February, and all seemed to be fine. I was then contacted on the afternoon of the 25th to be told that the surgeon was unwell and that my operation had been cancelled. However they were going to give me a different surgeon and rearrange my operation for the 10th of March. I arrived at the TAA a little before 7am (almost 23 weeks after my initial appointment) was asked to change into a theatre gown, and went through the normal checks, at 8am I briefly saw the surgeon, and was advised that I would be going to theatre shortly ( I was apparently the only patient on his list. ) I then sat there in what is little more than a corridor, the surgeon reappeared at 10am, looking a little irritated, apologised for the delay. And explained that intensive care was full, and had moved four patients into the theatre recovery suite. Asked me to be patient and explained that they were trying to move the patients so as to allow me into theatre. At 11am, having sat in my theatre gown in the “corridor” for four hours the surgeons registrar came to seem me to explain that my operation would not be happening and that they would contact me to rearrange my operation. Firstly I would like to point out that this is not a complaint against the nursing staff or doctors, who have all treated me respectfully at all times. Aside from the emotional stress finical costs and complete and utter disruption that I have suffered personally. As a British tax payer I don’t consider the NHS to be free. It is a very expensive service that needs to be run efficiently. Having a theatre sitting unused, a team not working a surgeon not operating, and administration staff repeatedly wasting time rearranging appointments and dealing with resulting complaints must waist thousands of pounds. I am guessing that the intension of the TAA is to, in effect; put patients onto a conveyor belt, more than a little impersonal, but I can understand if not agree with the logic behind it. However it’s one thing to have the conveyor belt running, but unless you train the staff to work on a production line it will never work. If the intensive care unit cannot cope with their workload on a pleasant spring morning, no adverse weather conditions, no major disasters locally, and then I would suggest that the department is under resorted, not only putting the patients at a higher risk but having a wider financial and reputational affect on the rest of the hospital.