Website of the Department of Health

NHS cancelled operations, quarter ending 30 September 2009

The latest quarterly national statistics on NHS cancelled operations produced by the Department of Health were released on 13 November 2009 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

NHS cancelled operations figures for the quarter ending 30 September 2009 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 September 2009, 13,577 operations were cancelled at the last minute for non-clinical reasons. In the same period in 2008, there were 13,144 cancelled operations.
• Cancelled operations during the quarter represented 0.8% of all elective activity, the same figure as the same period in 2008/09.
• Of these cancellations, 344 (2.5%) of patients were not treated within 28 days of a cancellation.  In the same period in 2008, 424 (3.2%) of patients were not treated within 28 days.
  

• Additional tables