Cancelled planned operations
Month ending 30 September 2023

An Official Statistics publication for Scotland

Published: 07 November 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 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 September 2023, there were 23,209 operations planned to take place across NHSScotland. This is 2.3% higher than the number planned a year previously in September 2022 (22,688).
The number of planned operations has been steadily increasing since pandemic restrictions first affected provision of services in March 2020. In the 12 months to September 2023, there was a 14.9% increase in the number of planned operations compared to the previous 12 months. This compares to a 12.7% year-on-year increase when comparing year ending September 2022 to year ending September 2021. However, activity remains lower than pre-pandemic levels. When comparing to September 2019 (27,704), there were 16.2% fewer operations planned during the latest month.
During the latest month, 9.1% (2,105) of planned operations were cancelled the day before or on the day the patient was due to be treated in NHSScotland. This increased from 8.6% (2,229) reported during August 2023 and is slightly above pre-pandemic levels, 8.7% (2,412) in September 2019. Across NHS Boards, this percentage ranged from 5.8% to 14.3%.
Of all planned operations during September 2023 in NHSScotland, 738 (3.2%) were cancelled by the hospital based on clinical reasons, 739 (3.2%) were cancelled by the patient, 541 (2.3%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 87 (0.4%) were cancelled due to other reasons.

Time series chart showing the percentage of cancellations for clinical reason, non-clinical or capacity reason, made by the patient, or for other reasons in NHS Scotland from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2023. The number of total planned operations is shown in a green area chart. There are vertical lines showing the start and end dates of covid-19 emergency measures, March 2020 and May 2022 respectively. — Image caption **Total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations, by reason, up to September 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 December 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.