Funerals and hospital appointments cancelled because of Queen’s funeral

‘Thousands’ of funerals and hospital appointments have been cancelled as the nation comes to a standstill to mourn the passing of Queen Elizabeth.

Her Majesty’s funeral – set to take place at Westminster Abbey on Monday September 19th – marks a nationwide bank holiday, giving workers up and down the country the day off to remember the long-serving monarch.

However, it has emerged today that a number of funeral services have also been cancelled or postponed to honour the Queen’s burial, as have ‘thousands’ of NHS hospital appointments and surgeries.

A woman rang into LBC this morning to share that her mother’s funeral, originally scheduled to take place on Monday, had been postponed because of the Queen’s burial.

She explained that the flowers, the service cars and the wake had all been arranged and paid for, and that relatives were even flying in from the US to be there for the service. 

People have been taking to Twitter to slam the decision to cancel or postpone funeral services as ‘absurd’ and ‘despicable’. 

One person commented: “Why should the scheduled funerals of the dearly departed be cancelled because the Queen died? Her life isn’t more worthy than theirs.

“Why’s the Govt & King Charles III allowing this? It’s why I say the Monarchy symbolises entrenched inequalities.”

Another noted: “To cancel a funeral/funerals is definitely a step too far. [Are] feelings and emotions permitted for one family only?”

Additionally, openDemocracy has reported that NHS trusts have postponed ‘thousands’ of ‘non-urgent’ procedures and appointments as a result of the national mourning period.

These cancellations include replacement surgeries, eye surgeries, maternity checks and even cancer treatments.

Many patients had been waiting months for surgery, only to have it cancelled a week beforehand. In a letter to one patient, the NHS blamed ‘unforeseen circumstances’.

The decision to cancel appointments comes as hospital waiting lists hit an all-time high, with almost 6.8 million people waiting for appointments at the end of July.

Astonishingly, more than 377,000 of these patients had been waiting for more than a year.

NHS data also shows that nearly 40% of cancer patients had their treatment delayed beyond the two-month maximum.

Announcing the decision to cancel appointments on Monday, NHS bosses at one trust said that if any doctors were ‘willing to operate’ they would be ‘supported’. 

A doctor at one trust told openDemocracy: “I imagine most of the doctors would be happy to just ignore the bank holiday, but we are totally reliant on a huge team of people paid minimum wage and treated like s**t like porters and cleaners, and I imagine they will take a bank holiday if offered – as I would in their position.”