Increase in number of operations cancelled at the last minute
- May 18, 2016
- EmmaArnold
The number of patients who had an operation cancelled at the last minute this year was the highest on record in 10 years.
Almost 75,000 NHS operations were postponed in England in the year to April 2016 at short notice.
Any cancelled operation, under the NHS constitution, should be rescheduled within 28 days or funded at a time and hospital of the patient's choice.
However, during the same period, more than 5,000 NHS patients in England were not treated within 28 days of their operation being cancelled.
The non-clinical reasons for the cancellations include beds or staff being unavailable but the figures did not include the cancelled operations during the three days junior doctors' strikes.
Hannah Bottomley, solicitor in the clinical negligence department at PotterReesDolan, said:
The headline figures said to be “disappointing” by the Royal College of Surgeons is something of real concern for me.
I often find, in dealing with complex clinical negligence claims, that treatment being delayed is one of the biggest causes of concern for my clients as the longer they go without treatment the longer they often remain in pain or worry that their condition, whatever it may be, could deteriorate.
The 10 year high figures are therefore more than disappointing and I hope that the stress this situation places on patients is not ignored, as so often tends to be the case, but delays are treated sensitively and kept to as much as a minimum as possible.
The Royal College of Surgeons suggests this increase indicates the pressure the NHS is under such as staff shortages and pressure in emergency departments.
You can read the full data here which shows the exact number of cancelled operations.