Record number of urgent operations cancelled in England last year

Hospitals cancelled a record number of urgent operations last year as bed shortages left them struggling to cope with the growing number of patients needing surgery, NHS figures show.

Hospitals in England cancelled a total of 4,093 urgent procedures during 2016, which equates to 341 per month. That was 8% more than the 3,777 they had to put off in 2015 and 27% up on the 3,216 such operations they cancelled during 2014.

While some cancellations occur because of the patient’s health, the large majority are due to hospitals having too few beds, especially in intensive care or high-dependency units in which patients can recover afterwards, often because a more urgent case has arrived. A few involve staff shortages or a surgeon becoming unexpectedly unavailable.

The latest figures mean that in all 17,598 patients have had their urgent operation cancelled over the past five years, often at the last minute, despite their condition requiring surgery without delay.

Opposition parties claimed the figures, published on Friday by NHS England, showed that problems in the health service were deepening and that the government was not giving it sufficient money to keep up with the rising demand for treatment.

“Theresa May’s NHS crisis continues, and the problems are worse and more widespread than in previous years. By underfunding and overstretching the NHS, the Tories have pushed health services to the brink”, said Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s health spokesman.

Norman Lamb, his counterpart for the Liberal Democrats, added: “The government’s stubborn refusal to give the NHS emergency funding means record numbers of operations are being cancelled as hospitals face weeks on end of intolerable pressure. This will inevitably have serious repercussions for patient care and the morale of NHS staff.”

The NHS England data shows that hospitals also cancelled 38,129 non-urgent elective operations between April and October – again, the largest-ever number for those six months.

Of those patients, 2,204 did not have their rescheduled surgery within 28 days, as the NHS Constitution says they should, in another sign of the huge pressures on the service.

However, NHS England’s latest winter situation reports data showed on Frida that hospitals came under slightly less strain last week than during the “winter crisis” that unfolded in the early weeks of January.

Overall 43 acute hospital trusts were forced to divert A&E patients to another emergency department because they could not cope with the large numbers of people needing care, down from 52 the week before. Similarly, 51 trusts declared some sort of alert during the week, down from 68 a week earlier.

A further Eleven people died from flu last week, bringing the total to 53 since the start of December, and 65 needed to be treated in an intensive care or high-dependency unit.

NHS England and Public Health England said the number of flu cases hospitalswere treating was worrying and linked to the particularly cold weather affecting much of England recently.

Record number of urgent operations cancelled in England last year