HSE probes cancelled ops rate

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) is examining how to avoid a repeat of the “unacceptable” situation which saw over 20,000 operations cancelled in 2004.

Pat McLoughlin, director of the HSE's national hospitals office, said the cancellation of any operation was "unacceptable" and the HSE had been discussing the problem with some of the country's busiest hospitals to see how to address it.

Shortage of beds was one of the chief reasons why 30 hospitals cancelled over 20,400 operations in 2004.