ALMOST 9,000 appointments and 79 operations were cancelled or patients failed to show up at Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth during the pandemic, figures described as “shocking” have revealed.

Figures uncovered by a Freedom of Information request by the Welsh Conservatives revealed the “huge scale of cancelled hospital operations and appointments as a result of lockdowns”.

The FoI requests found that during the first 18 months of the pandemic, from April 2020 to September 2021, there were 50,740 cancelled operations and 1,343,467 cancelled appointments in Welsh hospitals.

At Bronglais, 8,990 appointments were cancelled or went unattended during the pandemic, along with 79 operations.

Across the Hywel Dda Health Board region, 87,156 appointments were missed or cancelled, along with 489 operations across the board’s four hospitals.

The numbers include cancellations made by patients and instances where they did not attend, something Welsh Conservatives have said is “a practice that needs to end” and some people “need to be more considerate of the significant burden no-shows put on the NHS”.

Montgomeryshire MS and Shadow Health Minister Russell George MS said: “This avalanche of cancellations was obviously a consequence of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns and shows just how much we rely on the hard-working staff in our NHS.

“It is clear from this information that the cost of lockdowns go beyond the economic, and include physical and mental health.

“We can see that now in record long treatment backlogs, A&E waiting times, and ambulance responses.

“Welsh Conservatives have long called for regional surgical hubs that allow for vital treatments to be conducted in Covid-light environments and will soon be launching our plan to solve many of the problems in GP surgeries that have prevented patient access to primary care.

“In addition, to prevent further damage from Covid, we have called for the appointment of a vaccines minister, the rapid rollout of booster jab walk-in centres, the reopening of mass vaccination centres, and a commitment to keeping schools open.”

Hywel Dda University Health Board had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to press.