A COMBINATION of "horrendous" demand for Gwent hospital beds and an injury to an orthopaedic specialist is hampering attempts to meet a treatment waiting times target by tomorrow.

Demand for beds at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, caused by an increase in emergency medical admissions led to cancellations of routine operations during January as surgical beds are full.

Specialist joint surgery has also been disrupted because orthopaedic consultant Paul Roberts has injured a shoulder and is unable to operate.

No one in Wales should have to wait more than 12 months for any sort of treatment, a target that from last April should have been met month-on-month.

Delays in approval for extra surgery slots in English and private hospitals through the Assembly Second Offer Scheme caused a backlog in the summer and at one stage there were 295 patients in Gwent who had waited more than 12 months.

This was reduced to six at the end of November and eight by December 31, and despite this month's difficulties Gwent Healthcare Trust bosses had been hopeful of eliminating waits of more than a year by January 31.

Mr Roberts' injury is the second to befall an orthopaedic surgeon in recent months. It follows a foot injury suffered by Mr Kartik Hariharan in November. Both have contributed to difficulties in meeting waiting times targets.

Trust performance director Allan Davies said that the chance of transferring cases affected by Mr Roberts' misfortune is "negligible".

"We have been pulling out all the stops but might not be able to achieve it (the 12-month target) now. We have also had horrendous bed pressures throughout January," he said.

Almost 1,000 routine operations were cancelled throughout Gwent during April-December, a 50 per cent increase on the same period in 2004.

The situation has been so tight at the Royal Gwent that its day surgery unit has had to be set aside during January to accommodate emergency medical patients.

PAINFUL WAIT FOR JEANETTE

JEANETTE Padginton is among scores of patients whose operations have been cancelled in recent weeks as hospitals, the Royal Gwent in particular, struggle to cope with increased emergency medical demand.

Fifty-three year-old Mrs Padginton, who lives with husband Steve at King Street, Newport, was scheduled to have her gall bladder removed last Monday but was told when she rang the previous day that there was no bed available.

"It's not the staff's fault because they have been brilliant but it's very demoralising," she said.

Mrs Padginton was operated on last summer to free a gallstone that was blocking a tube and has suffered debilitating pains ever since. She cannot walk far, has had to stop working, and has twice been admitted to hospital as an emergency.

"I know I'm not the only one whose life has been put on hold because the system doesn't seem to be able to cope," she said.

A trust spokesman confirmed that lack of a bed was the cause for the cancellation.

"The situation has eased in the last couple of days, though that is a relative term at the moment. We are trying to rebook patients whose operations have had to be cancelled," he said.