As the Chief Medical Officer for England has stated:
NHS services nationally are likely to come under intense pressure as COVID-19 (coronavirus) spreads. Therefore, in line with well-established plans for situations like this, every hospital in England has been asked to suspend all elective (non-urgent) operations from 15 March 2020 for at least three months, with some other procedures likely to be rescheduled before then.
At Tissue & Cell Technologies Ltd we will therefore be postponing all routine inpatient harvest and grafting services for previously scheduled appointments until we are informed that the NHS is recommencing elective surgery. Our storage facility will be placed into care and maintenance mode until normal operations recommence. We appreciate how frustrating this will be for patients requiring reconstructuve surgery and, for our part, we would like to apologise.
As a key NHS supplier of human tissue processing and storage services for reconstructive surgery, we fully support the NHS decision allowing their staff to prioritise the care of the patients in greatest need and maintain safe care for patients and staff during this unprecedented time for the health service. We will do whatever is necessary to recommence normal services as elective surgery is phased back in at the end of the period. We will work with our surgeons through this period and they will contact patients as soon as they are able to reschedule both inpatient elective surgery and outpatient elective appointments – patients will be rescheduled according to clinical need and length of wait as the suspension of elective surgery and procedures is progresssively lifted. At this time we are unable to estimate when this will be the case, although it will be at least three months depending on national guidance from NHS England. If you are effected by this you should contact your healthcare provider directly.