SHOCKING figures show cancelled operations at an under-siege hospital are running at alarming level since Kidderminster Hospital was downgraded.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust says the figures are "deliberately misleading", but a consultant has described them as "absolutely outrageous."

Wyre Forest patients have to travel to Redditch and Worcester since the withdrawal of services at Kidderminster Hospital in September.

Figures show late cancelled operations at Alexandra Hospital, Redditch, due to bed shortages have risen by 45 per cent since the shake-up.

At the current rate it would mean 547 operations being cancelled a year.

Yet figures for the last full year of comprehensive function at Kidderminster Hospital - 1999 - show only 10 operations were cancelled for the same reason.

Consultant anaesthetist Dr Reg Johnstone, who works at the Alexandra, said: "This is absolutely outrageous.

"The public have been told that beds will open up elsewhere at a level equivalent to those at Kidderminster.

"Under these circumstances how can there possibly be cancellations numbering more than 500 a year through lack of beds? Whatever the trust says about bed numbers in the county, the provision is grossly inadequate."

Dr Johnstone, who is also a Health Concern member of Wyre Forest District Council, added: "Services are in absolute freefall and I don't think the trust has an answer to the problem apart from re-opening Kidderminster."

But a trust spokeswoman said: "The information given to the press is deliberately misleading as it compares three summer months to several autumn/winter months which have seen a fuel crisis and the evacuation of Castle Street because of floods.

"The trust has successfully opened a further 25 beds over the past three weeks and is now on target to meet its waiting list reduction for both inpatients and outpatients."

Dr Johnstone said morale was hitting rock-bottom at the Alexandra because of the cancelled operations.

He said: "There is a lot of absence through stress but then it does not matter how much staff you have if there aren't the beds to be able to cope with patients."

"I can honestly say since the downgrading I have had more operation lists with cancellations than complete ones."