A WIDNES grandmother who suffers from a degenerative disc disease and needs regular spinal injections fears she could be left in agony after spinal procedures have been suspended at Halton Hospital.

Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has cancelled all upcoming spinal procedures, following the death of two patients and two other serious incidents.

The decision will affect hundreds of patients.

Around 160 operations and 80 spinal injections have been cancelled – with procedures likely to be suspended until the end of the year.

The suspension comes after four serious incidents were reported in six-months.

Two patients died following surgery – believed to have been caused by medical complications – and there were two cases of post-operative nerve damage.

Mum-of-two Karren Fraser-Knight, 53, from Halton View, who has not received any notification from the hospital, said: “This is a nightmare. The pain is horrendous.

“A lot of people like me need these injections to function. It enables people to carry on working. It’s quite frightening.”

Karren also has scoliosis of the spine and complex regional pain syndrome.

“Over the years I have built up trust with my consultant,” she added.

“I’m worried if I have to go to another hospital and see another doctor.

“It’s nerve wracking enough going into this procedure without having this stress.”

The trust’s spinal services has not been involved in a serious incident since 2013.

Professor Simon Constable, the trust’s medical director and deputy chief executive, said: “We have made the decision to temporarily suspend our spinal surgery at Warrington and Halton hospitals following the identification of four serious incidents involving spinal surgery patients over a six-month period.

“Sadly two of these incidents were patient deaths – early indications suggest these were related to medical complications and not the surgery itself, but these cases are now subject to the external review.

“Although these incidents appear very different from each other, as a precautionary measure the trust – working with our commissioners and regulators – has temporarily stopped doing spinal procedures until a full external review has been undertaken.

“The trust and commissioners have invited the Royal College of Surgeons to undertake a comprehensive review of our current spinal services at the beginning of November.

“This will help inform any appropriate actions or decisions regarding the future service provision.”

The trust is contacting 240 patients currently on the waiting list for treatment.

Patients will be sent to other care providers, offered other forms of treatment or remain on the waiting list until the suspension is lifted.

Professor Constable added: “We understand that this may cause concern for patients on our waiting list or being referred in to our services and we sincerely apologise for this.

“Patient safety and welfare is our priority and we are in the process of contacting all patients awaiting spinal surgery to advise them of the options available to them.

“We apologise unreservedly for the inconvenience and distress caused.

“We see thousands of patients every year – with more than 5,500 outpatient appointments in spinal surgery last year and 1,600 procedures – but when there is any suggestion that we might have done something wrong we will take it very seriously.”

A spokesman for Halton Hospital added: “The trust is contacting patients who are immediately affected by the suspension and working their way through that list. This patient will be contacted in due course.

“We are unable to comment on alternatives at this time as this will be decided by the commissioners and each patient will be reviewed case by case.”