Cancelled planned operations
Month Ending 31 May 2025

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. Cancellation reasons are grouped into cancelled by the hospital for clinical reasons, cancelled by the patient, cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, cancelled for other reasons and cancelled for unknown reason.

Main points

During May 2025, there were 25,067 operations planned to take place across NHSScotland. This is 1.2% lower (-311) than the number planned a year previously in May 2024 (25,378). Overall, the number of planned operations had been steadily increasing since the COVID-19 pandemic impacted service provision, until April 2024 when increases in the 12-month rolling average began to plateau. Since then, in the 12 months from June 2024 to May 2025, there was a 0.6% increase (+1,801) in the number of planned operations (286,338) compared to the previous 12 months (284,537). This remains 14.6% lower (-48,960) than those planned to take place in the 12 months from June 2018 to May 2019 (335,298), prior to when the pandemic began to severely impact service provision. While a year-on-year increase is still being observed, the rate of growth has slowed.

During the latest month, 8.1% (2,019) of planned operations were cancelled the day before or on the day the patient was due to be treated in NHSScotland. This is a marginally higher rate than the one reported during May 2024 (8%; 2,018) and lower than the rate reported during May 2019 (8.3%; 2,451) which is the last May comparison time point before COVID-19 began to impact service provision. Across NHS boards, the percentage of cancelled planned operations ranged from 4.9% to 12.1% in this month.
Of all planned operations during May 2025 in NHSScotland, 819 (3.3%) were cancelled by the hospital for clinical reasons, 692 (2.8%) were cancelled by the patient, 437 (1.7%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 71 (0.3%) were cancelled for other reasons.

A trend chart showing NHSScotland level data for total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations, by reason, from May 2022 up to May 2025. The blue shaded area represents the total number of planned operations in each month across the time period. Each of the coloured lines represent the percentage of planned operations cancelled for each reason: the line with the highest percentage in the current month denotes those cancelled for clinical reasons; the next highest is those cancelled by patient; the third highest percentage on the graph is operations cancelled for non-clinical or capacity reasons, and finally, the lowest percentage in the current month is for cancellations for other reasons. The dotted line at the top of the graph since January 2023 shows the 12-monthly rolling average of all planned operations. The monthly figures over the time period have fluctuated for various reasons including seasonality and the number of working days in a month affecting number of planned operations and cancellation reasons. However, the 12-monthly rolling average for total number of planned operations has continued to increase although growth has slowed since approximately April 2024.

Close

NHSScotland total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations by reason to May 2025

Please note that fluctuation in the trend in the monthly number of planned operations will be caused partly by variation in the number of working days per month, i.e. weekdays excluding public holidays, as theatre capacity tends to be lower at weekends and on public holidays.

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 August 2025.

PHS is currently undertaking a review of the statistical publications we produce; all planned care waiting times outputs are being reviewed and this may lead to a change in the content, layout and frequency of future publications. Any substantial changes will be announced ahead of implementation. For more information, please contact us at phs.waitingtimes@phs.scot.