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
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.
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
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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.