Cancelled planned operations
Month Ending 30 June 2022

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.

Main points

• The total number of planned operations across NHSScotland during June 2022 was 21,094. This represents a decrease of 3.7% from 21,895 in May 2022 and is 4.2% lower than the number planned in June 2021. When compared to June 2019, prior to the pandemic, there were 21.7% fewer operations planned, down from 26,941.

Total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations, by reason, up to June 2022.

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Total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations, by reason, up to June 2022

• During June 2022, 9.5% of all planned operations, were cancelled the day before or on the day the patient was due to be treated. This compares to 8.7% reported in the previous month and remains comparable to pre-pandemic levels, reporting an average of 8.8% in 2019. Across NHS Boards, this percentage ranged from 4.6% to 18.3% during the latest month.
• Of all cancelled planned operations during June 2022, 724 (3.4%) were cancelled by the hospital based on clinical reasons, 569 (2.7%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, 601 (2.8%) were cancelled by the patient and 106 (0.5%) were cancelled due to other reasons. The rate of cancellations by the patient remains generally lower than pre-pandemic levels.

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.

The services involved have been affected throughout the course of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. In the early stages of the outbreak most non-urgent treatment was paused or reduced and there were fewer referrals to services. Since then, services were remobilised but capacity was often restrained by the requirement for additional infection control measures. In addition, further waves of the virus have slowed the recovery of services due to the need to again pause or reduce services for reasons such as increased staff absence or the need to divert resources because of an increase in unscheduled hospitalisations.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 6 September 2022.

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.