POOLE hospital has cancelled 94 urgent operations over the past year, new NHS figures show.

According to NHS England statistics, the hospital was forced to cancel at least one patient's urgent and potentially life saving operation twice during October, and was forced to rearrange one important operation twice in the space of a month.

This means that Poole was one of only five of England's hospital trusts which had to cancel key procedures twice in the four week period, as well as making five single cancellations for urgent operations during October.

These procedures included surgery needed to save patients' lives, limbs and organs, said the report, and cancellations can be due to shortages of beds or staff as well as operations running over time, or administrative errors.

Poole Hospital said it ‘worked hard’ to avoid rearranging operations as they understood the impact this can have on patients and their families.

However, the hospital’s medical director Robert Talbot said: “There are occasions when a procedure may need to be postponed, usually because the hospital is experiencing very high demand for urgent emergency services, which make up the majority of the care we provide.

“Regrettably, in exceptional circumstances, an operation may be moved more than once. In these situations we contact the patient to explain why the operation has been rearranged and discuss a convenient alternative date.”

Over in Bournemouth the picture appeared a happier one, with the same data set giving The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust a clean bill of health.

In the past 12 months the trust has not had to cancel any urgent operations, while other health providers in England have cancelled more than 200 important operations during the same time period.