December 20, 2021 - 764 views
The North Wales Health Board, Betsi Cadwaladr has announced that all non-urgent operations have been suspended until at least the start of January.
As pressure mounts on local services as a result of urgent COVID vaccinations and boosters, the board says they had little choice other than to take action.
"Our staff are pulling out all the stops to administer booster jabs to all eligible adults in the next 10 days, ahead of an anticipated peak in Omicron cases in January. Getting booster jabs into the arms of all eligible adults over the next 10 days is critical if we are to protect NHS services in January.
"This represents a huge challenge - particularly as we are forecasting that a significant number of staff may be absent from work due to COVID-19 infection or self-isolation over the coming weeks.
"To ensure that we can deploy our staff as effectively as possible, we have reluctantly taken the very difficult decision to postpone non-urgent operations, procedures and outpatient appointments with immediate effect from Monday, 20 December 2021.
"We have also asked that all other non-essential services are paused to allow staff to be released to support the vaccination campaign."
