Website of the Department of Health

NHS cancelled operations, quarter ending 30 June 2008

The latest quarterly national statistics on NHS cancelled operations produced by the Department of Health were released on 29th August 2008 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

NHS cancelled operations figures for the quarter ending 30th June 2008 include data for England, Strategic Health Authorities, and NHS Trusts.

The figures shown are the number of last minute cancelled operations for non clinical reasons and, of those, the number subsequently re-admitted within 28 days.

The key points from the latest release are:

• During the quarter ending 30 June 2008, 14,700 operations were cancelled at the last minute for non-clinical reasons. In the same period in 2007, there were 12,500 cancelled operations.
• Cancelled operations during the quarter represented 0.9% of all elective activity, compared to 0.8% in the same period in 2007.
• Of these cancellations, 686 (4.7%) of patients were not treated within 28 days of a cancellation. In the same period in 2007, 613 (4.9%) of patients were not treated within 28 days.