Hospitals admit errors over cancelled surgery

Two leading London hospitals admitted today they had lost track of how many operations they had cancelled in the past year.

Great Ormond Street and Kingston hospitals were named by the Conservatives as cancelling almost 14,000 surgical procedures.

The figures showed Great Ormond Street cancelled one child's operation 21 times - the highest figure for a single patient in the country.

The report said the leading children's hospital cancelled 3,590 operations in the past year, while Kingston postponed more than 10,000.

But the two hospitals today said they had supplied the wrong information. Great Ormond Street said it cancelled only 113 operations, and denied one person had been put on hold 21 times, while Kingston said it cancelled 190.

Spokesmen for both hospital trusts apologised for the errors.

The Conservative party said it would stand by the original figures, supplied by the hospitals as a result of a Freedom of Information request.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "Having an operation cancelled can cause huge distress for patients and their families. It's simply unacceptable that these figures are so high ."

Nationally more than 100,000 operations were cancelled.