I was given two dates, then both were cancelled

A woman told today how her operation was cancelled twice days before she was about to go into surgery.

Diane Woodall, 47, of Eltham, was given two dates for surgery on a serious bowel condition - only for Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, to postpone them.

Bosses claimed the hospital had to scrap non-emergency surgery because it was not meeting government A&E waiting time targets.

Mrs Woodall, an assistant practitioner at Lewisham Hospital, said she was enraged by claims by Health Secretary John Reid that Margaret Dixon's case was very rare.

Mrs Woodall's condition was diagnosed in summer 2004 and given a January operation date.

With a week to go, the hospital cancelled the operation by letter, setting a new date for surgery later that month.

Days before it was due to go ahead, she received another letter scrapping the latest operation and, to her anger, no new surgery had been scheduled.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital said it scrapped operations because it was failing to meet the four-hour time limit within which an A&E department must see patients - or else find them a bed.

Mrs Woodall said: "I was absolutely distraught. It was a nightmare because my job, my family, my quality of life were all suffering.

"I said to [hospital chiefs] I was prepared to take this as far as it could go.

"I was not the only one who had been cancelled. There were lots of other people who had their surgery cancelled who are probably still waiting now."

As a result of a direct complaint to hospital bosses, the mother of two was finally operated on three weeks ago and is now recovering at home.

"I felt relieved, but I was saying all the time to my husband, 'They are going to cancel it again,' " she added.