Cancelled planned operations
Month Ending 31 March 2024

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 March 2024, there were 23,876 operations planned to take place across NHSScotland. This is 6.1% lower than the number planned a year previously in March 2023 (25,423).
• 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 March 2024, there was a 7.6% increase in the number of planned operations compared to the previous 12 months. This compares to a 14.5% year-on-year increase when comparing year ending March 2023 to year ending March 2022. However, activity remains lower than pre-pandemic levels. When comparing to February 2020 (27,645), there were 13.6% fewer operations planned during the latest month.
• During the latest month, 8.2% (1,950) 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 8.9 % (2,264) reported during March 2023 and that reported in March 2019 (8.4%, 2,505). Across NHS Boards, the percentage of cancelled planned operations ranged from 5.4% to 11.3%.
• Of all planned operations during March 2024 in NHSScotland, 738 (3.1%) were cancelled by the hospital based on clinical reasons, 642 (2.7%) were cancelled by the patient, 480 (2%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 90 (0.4%) 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 March 2024. Total number of planned operations has been increasing since the start of COVID-19 emergency measures in March 2020. Although they have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. The percentage of cancelled planned operations due to clinical reasons has stayed consistent over the past 12 months at approximately 3%, except for a small increase in December 2023. The same being true for those cancelled by patients (roughly 3%) and non clinical/capacity reason (approximately 2%), except for a spike in December 2022 and a small increase from December 2023 for both cancellation reasons. Percentage of cancelled planned operations due to other reasons has remained consistently low since May 2020.

Close

Total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations, by reason, up to February 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 4 June 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.