MORE than 100 planned appointments have been cancelled by the trust which runs Basingstoke hospital to relieve pressure on its A&E department.

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust began the cancellations last Monday and will run for two weeks.

Almost all orthopaedic surgery at Basingstoke hospital and Winchester's Royal Hampshire County Hospital has been stopped for two weeks due to "unprecedented pressures" on their emergency departments.

However, emergency and cancer operations remain unaffected by the planned cancellations.

Dr Andrew Bishop, interim chief executive of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “Like most hospital trusts at the moment, we are facing hard choices because of unprecedented pressures on our emergency departments. These pressures impact on the capacity of the whole hospital. 

"To ease the pressure on beds, we have temporarily suspended some planned surgery for those who need to be admitted at both Royal Hampshire County Hospital and Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital. This is a two-week measure which began last Monday.

“We realise that this will cause inconvenience and concern for those patients who have had their planned surgery postponed and we apologise for that. This was a difficult decision to make, but we have taken these measures in order to increase our capacity to treat emergency patients who need to be admitted to a hospital bed.  

“At the end of this two-week period, we expect to be in better position to meet the demands faced by our emergency departments, and be able to continue the schedule of planned surgery. All postponed surgery will be rebooked as soon as possible.”