Devizes chef Chris Lugg has been left high and dry after his knee operation was cancelled at the last minute by Great Western Hospital.
Mr Lugg, 32, of Bromham, who is catering manager at Sainsbury’s in Devizes, damaged the cruciate ligament on his right knee while playing football last September.
He was booked in for a major reconstruction operation last Thursday and had changed into a gown and received his pre-med injections, only to be told that his operation could not go ahead.
He said: “They told me the surgeon was on annual leave. I questioned why they couldn’t have told me that before I turned up. People don’t suddenly just go on holiday.
“Because I was sitting there in this gown, I didn’t feel in a position to express how angry I was.
“I couldn’t get angry with the nurses, because they are brilliant. I did speak to someone from the admin office. He said they had phoned me at 11am to tell me the operation had been cancelled.
“I pointed out I had been at the hospital since 10am and I wasn’t allowed to have my phone on.”
The cancellation means that Mr Lugg, who used to help his parents Colin and Pam run the Black Swan Hotel in Devizes Market Place, is not working. He said: “I had given notice that I would be off work for three months and had trained up my replacement.
Mr Lugg is taking legal advice. A Great Western Hospital spokesman said: “Mr Lugg’s operation was cancelled as a result of the surgeon being unwell. “Despite our best efforts we were unable to find another surgeon who was able to perform the operation that day and we therefore had to re-schedule the operation for early September. “We had hoped that we may have been in a position to offer Mr Lugg an earlier appointment if one became available. Unfortunately this was not the case and we are sorry that Mr Lugg was contacted by letter rather than by phone.”
Gazette and Herald - Monday 23rd August 2010