Cancelled planned operations
Month Ending 31 August 2024
Official statistics
- Published
- 01 October 2024 (Latest release)
- 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. Please note that data were previously submitted for the specialty of obstetrics by several NHS boards in error. From August 2024, these boards are no longer submitting data for this specialty. Obstetrics figures have also been excluded from historic data to provide consistency across the time trend; there is a difference of an average of 1% since June 2017 in the total number of planned operations when this specialty is excluded. Therefore, figures in the current publication do not reflect figures that were published previously.
Main points
- During August 2024, there were 23,997 operations planned to take place across NHSScotland. This is 6.5% lower than the number planned a year previously in August 2023 (25,659); however, the number of planned operations has been steadily increasing since the COVID-19 pandemic impacted service provision. In the 12 months from September 2023 to August 2024, there was a 4.7% increase in the number of planned operations compared to the previous 12 months. However, this remains 15.1% lower than those planned to take place in the 12 months from March 2019 to February 2020, just prior to when the pandemic began to severely impact service provision.
- During the latest month, 8.5% (2,033) of planned operations were cancelled the day before or on the day the patient was due to be treated in NHSScotland. This is similar to the rates reported during August 2023 (8.6%; 2,208) and August 2019 (8.4%; 2,328). Across NHS boards, the percentage of cancelled planned operations ranged from 4.9% to 12.2%.
- Of all planned operations during August 2024 in NHSScotland, 719 (3%) were cancelled by the hospital based on clinical reasons, 683 (2.8%) were cancelled by the patient, 572 (2.4%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 59 (0.2%) were cancelled due to other reasons.
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 November 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.
General enquiries
If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please contact Rob Gibbs 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.