ADVANCED planning for the busy winter period should help Hywel Dda Health Board cut the number of operations it will have to cancel, the board’s winter plan has claimed.

Previous years have seen the health board forced to cancel swathes of operations as it struggled to cope with increased demand on services during winter periods.

The board initially chose to cancel all elective operations during winter 2013 before backing down following public criticism.

But the winter plan for 2015/16 does not include the cancellation of all scheduled operations, although it stops short of saying that no operations will be cancelled depending on emergency demand.

The plan says: “The close management of Referral to Treatment will continue, however the ability to manage the anticipated surges in activity through the winter months has always had a detrimental impact on the ability to deliver RTT, often resulting in cancellation and postponements of planned elective activity, in some cases on the day of surgery."

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