reported last week<\/a> how technical issues in Arrowe Park\u2019s sterilisation unit had led to a backlog and then a critical shortage of surgical instruments – which Mrs Lawrence said was the first time she learned the full story.<\/p>\nWirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Arrowe Park, cancelled all elective procedures to preserve what equipment was available for emergency surgery. <\/p>\n
A critical incident was declared on Tuesday 21 October and remains in place, with the trust seeking mutual aid and equipment from other hospitals. <\/p>\n
A trust spokesman said a “detailed recovery plan” was underway, which included the phased return of surgical services.<\/p>\n
He said: “We are very sorry that this situation has caused concern for some of our patients, waiting for surgery. <\/p>\n
“We fully understand how worrying this is and are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore services.”<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761137349_348_grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Handout](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/b7940db0-b41d-11f0-8af8-23f34058d4bc.jpg.webp.webp\")
Handout<\/p>\n
Mrs Lawrence recently became a grandmother for the second time <\/p>\n
Mrs Lawrence, from Saughall Massie, said she had been diagnosed in September after a scan found a mass on her kidney. <\/p>\n
Her surgery had initially been scheduled for 16 October, but was delayed by a week by hospital admin staff. <\/p>\n
She said: “I had two sisters who passed away from cancer – one at 48 and one at 52 – so mentioning cancer in the family is quite a thing really.<\/p>\n
“But I’ve got an opportunity for my cancer to be removed and therefore cured which my two sisters didn’t have, so I’ve focused on that as a real positive.”<\/p>\n
Mrs Lawrence, who became a grandmother for the second time in recent weeks, said she was packing a bag ready for her surgery the next day when she received a letter saying “it had been necessary” to cancel her procedure. <\/p>\n
She also received a phone call from staff at the hospital, who apologised but could give no indication of when her surgery would be rebooked and did not say why. <\/p>\n
Since then she has called the hospital for updates but was told no new information was available, although she was assured senior managers were having “meetings every day”. <\/p>\n
“Nobody’s telling us anything and I just think it’s disgraceful”, she said. <\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/8bbda900-af5c-11f0-8482-5bc1453746a5.jpg.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n
A problem with machinery used to sterilise surgical instruments has led to hundreds of appointments being cancelled<\/p>\n
Mrs Lawrence said she knows of other cancer patients in more serious situations than her own, and said the delays could be “a matter of surviving or not surviving”.<\/p>\n
Speaking of her own situation, she said: “It’s a major operation, and especially at my age. <\/p>\n
“I’ve been told that I’ve been so positive, which I’ve tried to be, but when this happened last week and I heard the reasons why and then no further information given, it’s really knocked me and I’m struggling now.”<\/p>\n
She told the BBC her biggest fear is that her tumour develops into a stage 4 cancer, meaning it spreads to other organs. <\/p>\n
“I won’t know that because I won’t have any more investigation now until I have my operation”, she said.<\/p>\n
“So you know that that is worrying.”<\/p>\n
Arrowe Park confirmed it was diverting patients to other hospitals where possible and still performing emergency surgeries. <\/p>\n
A statement on its website read: “Unfortunately multiple operations have been postponed so we can focus our resource on urgent and emergency procedures. The Trust is contacting all patients that are impacted.<\/p>\n
“We are grateful to our staff for their hard work during this time, to neighbouring Trusts for their support, and to our patients and the public for their understanding.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonny HumphriesNorth West Handout Elaine Lawrence had tried to remain positive before her operation but said her “confidence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-112422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Handout](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/61ffe9c0-b420-11f0-8d6c-7357788a3999.jpg.webp.webp\")
Handout<\/p>\n