Nearly 900 operations cancelled by hospitals in August

More than 10% of planned operations in Scotland’s hospitals were cancelled in August, latest figures show.

Monthly data from Public Health Scotland showed there were 23,626 planned operations for August – an increase of 20% from 19,685 in July 2022 and 15.1% higher than the number planned in August last year.

However, 2,408 of these operations – 10.2% of all those planned – were cancelled on the day the patient was due to be treated, or on the day before.

Of those that were cancelled, 890 were put back by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons – the highest rate since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Another 691 operations were cancelled by the hospital due to clinical reasons.

Some 708 operations were cancelled by the patient and a further 119 were affected by “other reasons”.

Scottish Labour has warned the NHS is at “breaking point”.

The party’s health spokeswoman, Jackie Baillie, said: “Hundreds of long-suffering patients have had their operations cancelled because of the chaos engulfing our NHS.

“Despite the tireless efforts of NHS staff, hospitals are at breaking point and sky-high rates of delayed discharge are piling on added pressure through the lack of available beds.

“Waiting lists will continue to spiral until we see any sign of leadership from our useless Health Secretary and absent government.

“This year’s winter crisis started in August – we need urgent action before things get any worse.”

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Sandesh Gulhane said: “The continued high number of operations being cancelled is hugely depressing for suffering patients, many of whom may be lying in agony.

“Over the last month, one in 10 operations were cancelled on the day of, or day before, the operation – which is a major setback for these patients both physically and mentally.

“These figures are further proof that Humza Yousaf’s flimsy NHS Recovery Plan has completely failed to remobilise our NHS. Operation levels are still nowhere near pre-pandemic levels, despite the vastly improved picture surrounding the virus.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton said it is “alarmingly clear that no meaningful action is being taken” to tackle the problem of backlogs in the NHS.

He said: “The continuing loss of these procedures means thousands of people are in pain and suffering as they wait for vital operations.

“Services are being overwhelmed. Every week more and more people are suffering due to a lack of any decisive action from the Cabinet Secretary. It is clear that our NHS needs new hope.”

The Health Secretary said the latest figures indicated services were starting to return towards pre-pandemic levels.

Mr Yousaf said: “On top of its emergency activity, our NHS carried out over 21,000 planned operations in August – with the highest daily average number of operations since the start of the pandemic.

“The scale of activity in the NHS is incredible, with around one operation beginning every two minutes on average. This shows real progress has been made in our recovery journey towards pre-pandemic levels of activity and is a testament to the care that our health service staff deliver for the people of Scotland every single day.”