Cancelled planned operations
Month ending 30 September 2021

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 the patient was due to be treated. Information on the reasons for cancellations are also included.

Main points

• The total number of planned operations across NHSScotland during September 2021 was 17,150. This represents a decrease of 16.5% from 20,531 in August 2021 and is just 0.6% higher than the number planned in September 2020. When comparing the latest month with September 2019, prior to the pandemic, there was a decrease of 38.1% from 27,704.
• In September 2021, 1,544 operations, or 9.0% of all planned operations, were cancelled the day before or on the day the patient was due to be treated. This compares to 1,714 (8.3%) in August 2021, 1,120 (6.6%) in September 2020 and 2,412 (8.7%) in September 2019. At NHS Board level this percentage ranged from 5.1% to 15.5% during the latest month.
• Of all planned operations during September 2021, 520 (3.0%) were cancelled by the hospital based on clinical reasons, 507 (3.0%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, 419 (2.4%) were cancelled by the patient and 98 (0.6%) were cancelled due to other reasons.

Total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations, by reason, up to September 2021

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Total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations by reason, up to September 2021

Background

These statistics are released monthly. Data for this publication are submitted from NHS board theatre systems.

The following definitions are used for the cancellation reason groupings:

• Cancellation based on clinical reason by hospital includes 'patient unwell', 'patient not prepared for procedure correctly by hospital' and 'patient did not follow pre op instruction'.
• Cancellation based on capacity or non-clinical reason by hospital includes 'no beds available', 'staff not available', 'equipment not available' and 'theatre session overran'.
• Cancellation by patient includes 'patient decides not to go ahead with procedure', 'patient unable to attend', 'patient did not attend' and 'patient did not attend pre-op'.
• Other includes 'fire alarm prevents operation from taking place', 'weather prevented patient / staff travelling' and 'patient transport did not arrive in time to bring patient to hospital'.

These statistics continue to be affected by the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. During the early stage of the outbreak, many operations were cancelled well ahead of their planned date, particularly if related to non-urgent elective treatment. Boards started to resume relevant services, from June 2020 but a second wave of cases emerged in the autumn and as the number of hospitalisations escalated during the winter months some boards temporarily paused non-urgent elective care again.

Further information

For more information on cancelled planned operations see the cancelled planned operations section of the Data and Intelligence website (external website). For related topics, please see the waiting times pages on the Data and Intelligence website (external website).

A selection of information from this publication is included in NHS Performs (external website).

The next release of this publication will be December 2021.