Jan Filochowski, an NHS troubleshooter appointed a month ago to turn around West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust, says 40 operations a week - or five per cent - were being cancelled when he arrived.

He says this is because theatre staff in Hemel Hempstead and Watford have quit rather than work in St Albans.

Mr Filochowski, who has been in the post of chief executive for a month, says lessons must be learned before full emergency services are moved to Watford next August.

He also said between April and June this year the trust was 'probably the worst in the country' for A&E waiting times, but was now on target.

The troubleshooter, who has worked wonders at other failing trusts, expects to be in West Herts for less than a year, but has already implemented a number of improvements.

Many of the trust's problems stem from a policy of money-saving job cuts which Mr Filochowski is now reversing.

"This is a good facility based on a good idea, but I am afraid it has had serious problems," he said of St Albans.

"It has not been operating as it should.

"Getting these problems sorted out is my biggest concern.

"They are fixable and I am committing us to fixing them over the next three or four months."

Mr Filochowski says cancellation rates have been halved to 20 a week but employing extra staff and using the private sector for operations had proved 'very costly'.

"We didn't staff it enough because we were so concerned with saving money we let too many theatre staff go," he said.

"A number of staff who had worked at Hemel and Watford decided they didn't want to go to St Albans, so when we opened we didn't have enough staff.

"People said they had teething problems but I realised it was much more than that."

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Stan Alderton, of Tile Kiln Lane in Hemel Hempstead, said: "I was sorry to read of the loss of theatre staff who had quit rather than work in St Albans. (The Gazette Wednesday 19 December). The subject of staff loss when changing work location was noted in the Citizens Jury that I attended on 7 October, but as with a number of other significant points raised, it was not mentioned in subsequent documentation."