Cancelled planned operations
Month ending 30 June 2023

An Official Statistics publication for Scotland

Published: 01 August 2023
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 may result in figures being undercounted.

Main points

During June 2023, there were 24,435 operations planned to take place across NHSScotland. This represents an increase of 1.3% compared to the 24,125 planned for May 2023 and is 15.8% higher than the number planned a year previously in June 2022 (21,094).
The trend for the monthly number of planned operations has generally been on the rise since May 2020 and the 24,435 reported in the latest month is the second-highest recorded since February 2020 (27,645). However, activity still remains lower than pre-pandemic levels and when comparing to June 2019 (26,941), there were 9.3% fewer operations planned during the latest month.
During the latest month, 9.1% (2,216) planned operations were cancelled the day before or on the day the patient was due to be treated, for NHSScotland. This has increased from 8.3% (2,003) reported during the previous month and remains comparable to pre-pandemic levels 8.7% (2,348) in June 2019. Across NHS Boards, this percentage ranged from 5.2% to 13.1%.
Of all planned operations during June 2023, for NHSScotland, 764 (3.1%) were cancelled by the hospital based on clinical reasons, 742 (3.0%) were cancelled by the patient, 615 (2.5%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 95 (0.4%) were cancelled due to other reasons.

Total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations, by reason, up to June 2023. — Image caption **Total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations, by reason, up to June 2023**

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 5 September 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.

General enquiries

If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please contact Maïana Sanjuan 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.