Covid causes delay in urgent operation

A retired university director whose cancer operation was cancelled because a hospital ward was full of Covid patients has now been treated and is hoping the delay has not changed his life forever.

On 5 January Colin Hubbard was told his operation at North Manchester General Hospital to remove two forms of high-risk cancer from his bladder needed to be carried out as soon as possible and was scheduled for nine days later. The next day it was cancelled with no indication of when it would take place.

The post-operative urology ward was full of patients with Covid-19 and Hubbard was told his records had been passed to Wythenshawe hospital in the hope the operation could be performed there, but when he contacted the hospital, they had no knowledge of him.

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