Cancelled planned operations
Month Ending 30 April 2024

Official statistics

Published: 04 June 2024
Type: Statistical report
Author: Public Health Scotland

Waiting times

Please note that this publication includes data which have been revised from August 2024 onwards and published for the first time in October 2024. Data were previously submitted for the specialty of obstetrics by several NHS boards in error but they are no longer submitting these data. This change has also been applied to historic data to ensure a comparable time trend; therefore, please treat the figures in this publication with caution. View the most recent publication.

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 on the day of treatment. Following a review of data processes, an error has been identified at NHS Orkney which means historic statistics for this Board prior to July 2023 are likely to be undercounting the true number of cancellations. PHS are collaborating with NHS Orkney to resolve this issue.

Main points

During April 2024, there were 23,482 operations planned to take place across NHSScotland. This is 18.4% higher than the number planned a year previously in April 2023 (19,840).
The number of planned operations has been steadily increasing since pandemic restrictions first affected provision of services in March 2020. In the 12 months including April 2024, there was an 8.4% increase in the number of planned operations compared to the previous 12 months. This compares to a 15.2% year-on-year increase when comparing year ending April 2023 to year ending April 2022. However, activity remains lower than pre-pandemic levels. When comparing to February 2020 (27,645), there were 15.1% fewer operations planned during the latest month.
During the latest month, 8.3% (1,943) of planned operations were cancelled the day before or on the day the patient was due to be treated in NHSScotland. This is a slightly lower rate than both the 8.7 % (1,733) reported during April 2023 and that reported in April 2019 (8.5%, 2,310). Across NHS Boards, the percentage of cancelled planned operations ranged from 6% to 14.5%.
Of all planned operations during April 2024 in NHSScotland, 748 (3.2%) were cancelled by the hospital based on clinical reasons, 697 (3%) were cancelled by the patient, 426 (1.8%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 72 (0.3%) were cancelled due to other reasons.

A graph showing NHS Scotland level data for total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations, by reason, from January 2020 up to April 2024. — Image caption **Total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations, by reason, up to April 2024.**

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.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 2 July 2024.

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.

General enquiries

If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please contact Rob Gibbs at phs.waitingtimes@phs.scot.

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Older versions of this publication

Versions of this publication released before 16 March 2020 may be found on the Data and Intelligence, Health Protection Scotland or Improving Health websites.