NHS trusts cancel hospital appointments due to bank holiday to mark Queen’s funeral – but health chiefs vow to keep vaccination centres open and urgent and emergency appointments running

• NHS Trusts have said that some non-urgent procedures are to be postponed 
• However NHS England said vaccination services and urgent care would continue
• Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral on Monday has been declared a bank holiday 
• Full coverage: Click here to see all our coverage of the Queen’s passing

Patients across the UK have had hospital appointments cancelled due to the bank holiday to mark the Queen’s funeral.

Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral will take place on Monday September 19 – which has been declared a bank holiday. 

Several NHS Trusts have said that some non-urgent procedures and clinic appointments are to be postponed with King’s College Hospital stating this would be the ‘vast majority’.

However NHS England said that Covid vaccination services and urgent and emergency appointments would continue.

A spokesperson also said normal bank holiday protocol would be followed and rather than a blanket decision, it would be up to local NHS services to decide whether to postpone appointments. 

Patients across the UK have had hospital appointments cancelled due to the bank holiday to mark the Queen’s funeral (file photo)

A pregnant woman said her fetal scan at a London trust had been cancelled and that she was placed on hold for four hours when she called to reschedule. 

She told openDemocracy she was ‘really disappointed’ as she would have to wait an extra week or two to see if her baby was healthy which would involve a lot of ‘anxiety, sitting and waiting’. 

It was also reported that a doctor at one trust had said most would be happy to ignore the bank holiday. 

However the doctor said they are ‘totally reliant’ on minimum wage workers such as porters and cleaners, who are ‘treated like s***’, and that they would likely take the day off, ‘as I would in their position’.   

In a letter signed by Dr Ursula Montgomery, Director of Primary Care, NHS England, GPs were told they would contractually be allowed to close for their core services as a result of the bank holiday.

Dr Montgomery also said  GPs should enable patients to receive repeat prescriptions in advance of the bank holiday.

This comes as 6.8 million people were waiting for an appointment at the end of July – an all-time high – 377,000 of whom had been waiting for more than a year.

Some trusts such as Plymouth Hospital and Torbay and South Devon told patients to plan as though appointments were going ahead.

Several NHS Trusts have said that some non-urgent procedures and clinic appointments are to be postponed with King’s College Hospital stating this would be the ‘vast majority’ (file photo)

However others such as King’s College Hospital and Bedfordshire Hospitals confirmed that some appointments would be rescheduled.

An NHS England spokesperson said: ‘NHS staff will work to ensure that urgent and emergency services, including urgent dental and GP appointments, are available — and patients will be contacted by their local services, if necessary, regarding their existing appointments.

‘NHS England wants as many staff as possible to be able to mark the funeral of Her Majesty the Queen but Covid vaccination services, particularly in care homes, are being asked to continue their work given the importance of protecting people ahead of winter.’

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