"Cancelled Operation on Terminally Ill Patients"

My wife who is slowly dying from MND type ALS and it took Hereford County Hospital over twelve months to diagnose she has a kidney stone which has left her in considerable pain and discomfort all this time. She has attend wasted ultra sound scan, and appointments (wrong consultant) when travelling only exacerbates the pain she is in.

The only answer in the mean time was to take two extra strong pain killers four times a day, one of the side effects of the MND is great difficulty in swallowing!

So for at least the last six (it was in the summer this year when the stone was confirmed) to twelve months we have carried on taking pain killers which in turn gives her bowl problems for which she has to take more medication.

As the months have gone by the pain and discomfort has got worse and she has had to resort to staying in bed and then running the risk of getting bed sores as she is can not move herself with the MND.

This week she finally was due to have her operation to remove the stone and stop the endless pain and suffering she has been in.

After the carers had got her up early showered her and we were putting her in the disability van when the telephone rang to say all operations in the afternoon had been cancelled due to lack of beds!

To say I was not pleased was an understatement.

The only answer I could get out of the hospital was that they were sorry, sorry does not come anywhere near enough when dealing with people this way especially patients with other complication that they have to deal with.

They the administrators do not review files as to who needs what that just make one size fits all decisions to alleviate a problem which lets face it they have known about since before the hospital was built.

They are the managers and they should manage if they can not I suggest they all resign.

Now my wife who has six children has gone to bed taking more and more pain killers thinking that as she already has a terminal illness so they do not consider her important and nobody can provide an answers to say why she is not correct in her thoughts.

This is supposed t be a health service - I for one (probably many) question this? To me there is no compassion, no care and no commitment and the Chief Executive would not contact me to discuss the issue.

Is he above talking to me or a local employee?