thousands of operations are being cancelled with highly—skilled surgeons left "kicking their heels" because of a shortage of hospital beds. that's the warning from the royal collegend the organisation that represents nhs trusts. in a joint letter to the sunday times, they argue that a lack of funding for health and social care in england is leading to what they call a "shocking waste" and damaging efforts to improve efficiency. nhs england says only i% of operations are cancelled. our health correspondent dominic hughes has more. over the past few weeks, the bbc two documentary series hospita has demonstrated how a shortage of beds contributes to the pressure on the health service. this can lead to long waits for those needing to be admitted from accident and emergency departments, but also for those needing planned surgery. i sometimes feel that i spend as much energy on trying to organise and manage beds and the movement, the flow, of patients within the hospital to allow us to do what we want to get on with, which is to operate. the programme showed how if beds are not available for patients to recover in safely, operations simply cannot go ahead. now the roya

thousands of operations are being cancelled with highly—skilled surgeons left "kicking their heels" because of a shortage of hospital beds. that's the warning from the royal collegesurgeons and the organisation that represents nhs trusts. in a joint letter to the sunday times, they argue that a lack of funding for health and social care in england is leading to what they call a "shocking waste" and damaging efforts to improve efficiency. nhs england says only 1% of operations are cancelled. our health correspondent, dominic hughes, has more. over the past few weeks, the bbc two documentary series hospital has demonstrated how a shortage of beds contributes to the pressure on the health service. this can lead to long waits for those needing to be admitted from accident and emergency departments, but also for those needing planned surgery. i sometimes feel that i spend as much energy on trying to organise and manage beds and the movement, the flow, of patients within the hospital to allow us to do what we want to get on with, which is to operate. the programme showed how if beds are not available for patients to recover in safely, operations simply cannot go ahead.

thousands of operations are being cancelled with highly—skilled surgeons left "kicking their heels" because of a shortage of hospital beds. that's the warning from the royal collegesents nhs trusts. in a joint letter to the sunday times, they argue that a lack of funding for health and social care in england is leading to what they call a "shocking waste" and damaging efforts to improve efficiency. health service england says only i% of operations are cancelled. hospital has demonstrated how a shortage of beds contributes to the pressure on the health service. this can lead to long waits for those needing to be admitted from accident and emergency departments, but also for those needing planned surgery. i sometimes feel that i spend as much energy on trying to organise and manage beds and the movement, the flow, of patients within the hospital to allow us to do what we want to get on with, which is to operate. the programme showed how if beds are not available for patients to recover in safely, operations simply cannot go ahead. now the royal college of surgeons and the nhs body that represents nhs trusts says this is damaging efforts to improve productivity with

thousands of operations are being cancelled with highly—skilled surgeons left "kicking their heels" because of a shortage of hospital beds. that's the warning from the royal college funding for health and social care in england is leading to what they call a "shocking waste" and damaging efforts to improve efficiency. nhs england says only 1% of operations are cancelled. our health correspondent dominic hughes has more. over the past few weeks, the bbc two documentary series hospital has demonstrated how a shortage of beds contributes to the pressure on the health service. this can lead to long waits for those needing to be admitted from accident and emergency departments, but also for those needing planned surgery. i sometimes feel that i spend as much energy on trying to organise and manage beds and the movement, the flow, of patients within the hospital to allow us to do what we want to get on with, which is to operate. the programme showed how, if beds are not available for patients to recover in safely, operations simply cannot go ahead. now, the royal college of surgeons and nhs providers, the body that represents nhs trusts says this is damaging efforts to

thousands of operations are being cancelled with highly—skilled surgeons left "kicking their heels" because of a shortage of hospital beds. that's the warning from the royal college joint letter to the sunday times, they argue that a lack of funding for health and social care in england is leading to what they call a "shocking waste" and damaging efforts to improve efficiency. nhs england says only i% of operations are cancelled. our health correspondent, dominic hughes, has more.

the royal college of surgeons says the delays are causing real suffering for many patients, while nhsnd says it's doing all it can to speed up treatment times. in the first of a series of special reports, on the nhs, here's our health editor, hugh pym. for peter, it wasn'tjust inconvenient waiting six months for surgery, it made his life almost unbearable. even after a series of operations began last autumn, there were delays when he was almost immobile. i was completely housebound, relying on friends forjust minor trips to the shops and i became quite reclusive as well. deeply frustrated and deeply upset with not being able to get out and do what i wanted to do. bbc research shows that long waits for operations have gone up a lot, though they are measured differently around the uk. in england, the number waiting over 18 weeks was up 163%. in scotland, the figure was up 95%. in wales, those waiting over 26 weeks were up 74%. and in northern ireland, the number waiting over 13 weeks was up 95%. i don't know anybody who isn't extremely concerned about this because it is an indicator of

the royal college of surgeons, and the organisation that represents nhs trusts, is warning that highlyed surgeons in england are being left ”kicking their heels” while they wait for hospital beds to become available.. and operations are being cancelled. they argue a lack of funding for health and social care means patients are not being discharged when they should be. nhs england says onlyi percent of operations were cancelled at the last minute. the commons speaker, john bercow, has insisted that his impartiality has not been compromised, after a video emerged of him declaring that he voted remain in the eu referendum. he was filmed telling students at reading university at was better to be part of a big power bloc and trying to act alone. one tory mp has called for him to resign but this morning politicians from both the conservative and labour parties have come to his defence. our political correspondent susana mendonca is here. his critics say she is at threat —— he isa his critics say she is at threat —— he is a threat. there is a motion to pass a vote of no—confidence in him. the

joining me now is the chair of the royal college of gps professor helen lampard stokes, and the cancer surgeontourism. we saw in that clip, an nhs person saying to a mother who had lost her child or two children i think, at that point, we need to talk about the bill. are you comfortable with that as a kind of ethos in the nhs? well, that case, is exceptional and there is some tragic elms —— elements, to that case, perhaps we can just set that aside for just a moment, but the fact about maternity tourism is it is very common, for example last year, at st george's hospital it was reported 1800 foreign ladies who had delivered babies there will be and in retrospect 870 of those approximately were ineligible for nhs care. what would you do in those cases, because those people, you are probably not going to be able to recoup a large amount. you can chase them. you won't get very much. what is the practical thing, you ask them to show their passport. the point about passports, it is just to do with non—urgent care, for elective cases. it is very little you can do for maternity cases because the gove