Cancelled planned operations
Month Ending 28 February 2023

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides a monthly update on the number of operations in NHSScotland that were cancelled the day before or the day of treatment. Note that due to technical issues, NHS Lothian have been unable to provide data from October 2022 onwards. These data have also been excluded from NHSScotland totals.

Main points

• During February 2023 there were 18,069 operations planned to take place across NHSScotland (excl. NHS Lothian). This represents an increase of 3% compared to the 17,539 planned for January 2023 and is 13.9% higher than the number planned a year previously in February 2022.

Total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations, by reason, up to February 2023.

Close

Total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations, by reason, up to February 2023

• Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when planned care service capacity was severely impacted, the underlying trend for the monthly number of planned operations has been moving upwards, however activity remains lower than that occurring prior to the pandemic. For instance, when comparing to February 2020, there were 23.3% fewer operations planned.
• During February 2023, 8.4% of all planned operations were cancelled the day before or on the day the patient was due to be treated for NHSScotland (excl. NHS Lothian). This has decreased from 9% during the previous month but remains comparable to pre-pandemic levels (8.4% in February 2020). Across NHS Boards, this percentage ranged from 4.6% in NHS Borders to 18.4% in NHS Shetland. The high rate reported by NHS Shetland was due to significant COVID prevalence amongst staff, resulting in staff shortages.
• Of all cancelled planned operations during February 2023, for NHSScotland (excl. NHS Lothian) 576 (3.2%) were cancelled by the hospital based on clinical reasons, 369 (2%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, 524 (2.9%) were cancelled by the patient, and 56 (0.3%) were cancelled due to other reasons.

Background

These statistics are released monthly. Data for this publication are submitted from NHS board theatre systems. Further information on the reasons for cancellation can be found on the Cancelled Planned Operations section of our website.

These statistics continue to be affected by COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 2 May 2023.

NHS Performs

A selection of information from this publication is included in NHS Performs. NHS Performs is a website that brings together a range of information on how hospitals and NHS Boards within NHSScotland are performing.