"My dad's operation being cancelled"

My dad was ear marked for a hip operation at Crosshouse hospital earlier this year. If he had been taken within the correct waiting times he would've had the operation in October. However when we had no word of this I called the hospital and was told waiting lists were sitting at between 26 and 28 weeks. So we waited and he was eventually given a date to go in. This was in December - with the operation the next day. So we took him in (to a very empty ward 2B) he was admitted, he had his lunch, he had bloods taken, swabs done, kept in overnight and then he had the operation cancelled the next day.

He was sent home. In pain and with no other information other than they were busy with trauma cases. Not only is this a fantastic waste of money (why not cancel the day before or cancel someone you've not already admitted) but a man was sent home, in agony, hardly able to walk and virtually to be a prisoner in his own home. To further add to this I phoned to find out when he would be called again - only to find out that, while he may be on the short notice list, that might not be any good - as the situation in Crosshouse is that all orthopaedic operations could be cancelled for January because of emergencies. My dad will soon be one of these emergencies if he is left much longer and then the hospital will have a legal issue on their hands - trust me! Now to add insult to injury I then find a press statement from NHS Ayrshire and Arran about cancellations - they've only had 15 and everything is going ahead as normal.

So as you can imagine I'm not only angry about the length of time my elderly year old father has to wait but rather disgusted about the stories being peddled in the media - that have been contradicted by a member of staff.