Date: 21 August 2019

Request

The total number of operations cancelled for non-clinical reasons, broken down by the cause of the cancellation, for example due to lack of beds, operating theatre capacity, staffing issues, and equipment failures. Please provide this information for each of the past three financial years (2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19). In the total number of operations, broken down by cancellation reason, please include:

• Elective operations cancelled at the last minute. For the purposes of this request, last minute means on the day the patient was due to arrive, after the patient has arrived in hospital or on the day of the operation or surgery.
• Cancelled urgent operations.

Response

Please see table below. Please note – the table only includes data for cancelled urgent operations; as this data is not required for any formal submissions it is un-validated.

Information on cancelled elective operations is available from the NHS England website. The data for elective operations is therefore exempt under Section 21 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act (2000), as it is already accessible by other means. Please refer to the following link for details https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancelled-elective-operations/cancelledops-data/

Freedom of Information request Ref FOI 6171 2016/2017

Reason for Cancellation	2016/17	Cancelled urgent operations
Lack of beds	255	97
Operating theatre capacity / list over-ran	257	59
Staffing issues	1831	375
Equipment failures	261	43
Emergency case took priority	2138	403
Adverse weather	N/A	0
Booking / admin error	12	5
Case note unavailable	38	6
Other reasons	463	133
TOTAL	5255	1121

Freedom of Information request Ref FOI 6171 2017/2018

Reason for Cancellation	2017/18	Cancelled urgent operations
Lack of beds	287	96
Operating theatre capacity / list over-ran	223	48
Staffing issues	1698	304
Equipment failures	178	36
Emergency case took priority	2016	433
Adverse weather	18	4
Booking / admin error	19	2
Case note unavailable	18	2
Other reasons	560	137
TOTAL	5017	1062

Freedom of Information request Ref FOI 6171 2018/2019

Reason for Cancellation	2018/19	Cancelled urgent operations
Lack of beds	382	137
Operating theatre capacity / list over-ran	277	84
Staffing issues	1398	275
Equipment failures	1001	92
Emergency case took priority	2137	534
Adverse weather	1	0
Booking / admin error	19	3
Case note unavailable	15	1
Other reasons	533	135
TOTAL	5763	1261