WORCESTERSHIRE Acute Hospitals NHS Trust cancelled three urgent and potentially life saving operations in October, the latest health data has revealed.

It was one of only 40 hospital trusts in England to cancel at least one important procedure in October, according to statistics from the NHS. More than two thirds of the country's trusts did not rearrange a single urgent operation over the same time period.

Such operations can include swift action needed to save patients' lives, limbs and organs.

In the last 12 months the trust has stopped 92 key surgeries.

And five patients have had an operation cancelled twice in the space of just four weeks, over the past year. Cancellations can be due to shortages of beds or staff as well as surgeries running over time, or administrative errors.

The trust cancelled more surgeries this year than in the same month in 2016, when none were stopped.

The figures may spark concern given the winter months are fast approaching, when more pressure is expected to be placed on NHS services.

Between last December, January and February 36 urgent operations were cancelled.

The chief executive of NHS England Simon Stevens recently warned ministers that waiting times would continue to rise unless more money was put into the health service, after the chancellor Philip Hammond promised £350 million in the Budget to help this winter.