Several NHS trusts have announced that non-urgent appointments and surgeries on Monday 19 September are to be rescheduled. This comes after the NHS released a letter to GP surgeries that stated, “GP practices will be contractually able to close on this day.” Bedfordshire Hospitals and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals are among the NHS trusts that have announced reduced or cancelled services on Monday.

According to The Guardian, thousands of important appointments and operations, including hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery, maternity checks and some cancer treatments have already been cancelled. The news of these cancellations comes at a time when a record 6.8 million people in England are already on hospital waiting lists due to backlog caused by the pandemic.

As The Times reported, there are usually 1.3 million GP appointments in England each Monday, making it the NHS’s busiest day. Normally, bank holidays are expected and few appointments are made in the first place. However, in this case, because it is a last-minute bank holiday, thousands of people are receiving last-minute cancellations.

Hospital appointments, funerals and food banks cancelled on Monday due to the Queen’s funeral