Keep elective surgical services in King's Lynn

NHS Improvement have told the board of the hospital (which has been put in special measures following an unfavourable report from the Care Quality Commission) that they will have to stop all elective surgery including cancer surgery for the next six months unless an alternative solution can be found. This is despite the fact that the adverse findings by the CQC were not to do with surgical services and were primarily about insufficient numbers of nursing staff particularly in the medical wards.
If this happens it will impose considerable hardship on the people of West Norfolk and South Cambridgeshire who will have major delays in their surgery and will have a 100 mile round trip for them to have treatment elsewhere. It also puts the future of the hospital in doubt as staff losses are likely to escalate due to this measure.