Britain Cancels Cancer, Vaccine, Pregnancy Appointments for Queen’s Funeral
The queen's state funeral will be on Monday, which is now a last-minute public holiday—meaning crucial surgeries and treatments won't happen.
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If you’re planning to rock up to your long-scheduled cardiology appointment at a British hospital on Monday, actually, no you’re not. Thousands of patients are receiving notifications from the National Health Service that their “non-urgent” procedures and appointments must be postponed because of “unforeseen circumstances.” Said unforeseen circumstances? Lizzie croaking. Her funeral will be held on Monday, which has also been named an official, last-minute bank holiday. Just because the queen died doesn’t mean a bunch of other Brits have to, too.
Folks have tweeted about cardiology treatments and chemotherapy sessions being canceled because of the public holiday. I am merely a blogger but those are two things that feel rather medically urgent. Due to current waitlists for many NHS services, it’s very likely that many of these patients have waited for weeks or months—in some cases years—to schedule these appointments only to have them bumped at the last minute. It’s creating a lot of tension and fear. One woman, a chemo patient, tweeted that her covid booster appointment was canceled. I “just hope I stay safe,” she said.
One pregnant woman told openDemocracy that when her fetal scan was canceled and she tried to reschedule the appointment, she was kept on hold for four hours.