Cancelled planned operations
Month ending 30 November 2025

Official statistics

Published: 13 January 2026 (Latest release)
Type: Statistical report
Author: Public Health Scotland

Waiting times

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides a monthly update on the number of operations in NHS Scotland 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 November 2025:

There were 25,996 operations planned to take place across NHS Scotland. This is 5% higher (+1,232) than the number planned in November 2024 (24,764). Overall, the number of planned operations has been increasing since COVID-19 affected services, albeit with a levelling off in the 12-month rolling average between May 2024 and June 2025. In the latest 12 months, from December 2024 to November 2025 (298,246), there was a 5.2% increase (+14,796) compared to the previous 12 months (283,450). However, it is still 10.4% lower (-34,744) than the number of operations planned to take place between December 2018 and November 2019 (332,990).
In NHS Scotland, 8.4% (2,185) of planned operations were cancelled the day before or on the day the patient was due to be treated. This is the same rate reported a year previously in November 2024 (8.4%; 2,090), but a lower rate than November 2019 (9.1%; 2,685). Across NHS boards, the percentage ranged from 5.0% to 13.1% in the most recent month.
Of all planned operations during November 2025 in NHS Scotland, the cancellation reasons were; 798 (3.1%) by the hospital for clinical reasons, 814 (3.1%) by the patient, 504 (1.9%) by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 69 (0.3%) for other reasons.

A trend chart showing NHS Scotland level data for total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations, by reason, from November 2022 up to November 2025. The blue line represents the total number of planned operations in each month across the time period.

The dotted black line at the top of the graph since November 2022 shows the 12-monthly rolling average of all planned operations. The second dotted line below shows the 12 month rolling average for cancelled operations by percentage.

Each of the coloured bars represent the percentage of total planned operations cancelled for each reason: the lowest bar denotes those cancelled for clinical reasons; the next highest is those cancelled for non clinical/capacity reasons; the next highest is those cancelled by patient; the next highest percentage on the graph is operations cancelled for other reasons, and finally, the highest is for cancellations for unknown reasons.

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, despite a plateau between April 2024 and April 2025. — Image caption **NHS Scotland total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations by reason to November 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 3 February 2026.

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

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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.