Cancelled planned operations
Month ending 31 March 2026

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. For further information on these definitions, please see the Metadata document.

Main points

During March 2026:

• There were 28,454 operations planned to take place across NHS Scotland. This is 12.8% higher (+3,228) than the number planned in March 2025 (25,226). Over the course of the last 12 months, from April 2025 to March 2026 (307,272), there was a 7.2% increase (+20,756) compared to the previous 12 months (286,516). This reflects the post-Covid pandemic trend of generally increasing planned operations. The latest figure is the highest number of operations planned to take place in the post-pandemic period and 3.3% lower (-961) than March 2019 (29,415), the latest equivalent month prior to the pandemic.
• In NHS Scotland, 8.9% (2,519) of planned operations were cancelled the day before or on the day the patient was due to be treated. This is a higher rate (+0.7 percentage points) than a year previously in March 2025 (8.2%; 2,065). The cancellation average rate over the last 12 months was 8.8%, a little higher than one year earlier when it was 8.6%. The 12-month average rate immediately prior to the Covid pandemic was 8.8%. Across NHS boards, the percentage ranged from 4.7% to 13.7% in the most recent month.
• Of all planned operations during March 2026 in NHS Scotland, 915 (3.2%) were cancelled the day before or on the day of treatment by the hospital for clinical reasons, 849 (3%) by the patient, 621 (2.2%) by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 134 (0.5%) for other reasons.

A trend chart showing NHS Scotland level data for total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations, by reason, from March 2023 up to March 2026. 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 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.

Close

NHS Scotland total planned operations and percentage of cancelled planned operations by reason to March 2026

Please note that fluctuation in the trend of planned operations is affected 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. In addition, the typically higher levels of cancellations seen e.g. in January 2026 are in part due to seasonal weather patterns.

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 2 June 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.