More than 1,500 planned operations were cancelled at the last minute by hospitals across the north and north-east in the past year because of capacity issues or non-clinical reasons, according to new figures.
Data published by the Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland reveals 872 were called off at the eleventh hour by NHS Grampian between July 2016 and the end of June.
NHS Highland pulled 628 over the same period, Shetland 38, Orkney 22 and the Western Isles 11.
The total for Scotland as a whole was 7,044, an average of nearly 600 a month.
In June alone, 476 were cancelled, the equivalent of around 16 a day.
The numbers cover slots pulled on the day or working day prior to the scheduled operation.
Included in the ISD’s capacity or non-clinical category are cancellations for reasons such as a lack of beds, unavailability of staff, an emergency operation taking clinical priority and dirty equipment.
The NHS Grampian figures exclude procedures not recorded on the theatre system, so those carried out on the urology ward, for example, or in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary’s endoscopy suite.
Writing in today’s Press and Journal, Scottish Labour deputy leader Alex Rowley said the statistics suggest staffing issues remain a concern.
The MSP added: “Our NHS staff do lifesaving work, but they are overworked and undervalued because the SNP has created a workforce crisis in our health service.
“Simply put, our hospitals don’t have enough doctors and nurses. Patients and staff are being let down by a decade of SNP mismanagement.”
He also pointed to the workforce commission set up by the party’s health spokesman Anas Sarwar to look at the long-term problems.
He added: “This will bring together professionals from across the NHS, representing different sectors, who will together develop a strategy to ensure our NHS is fit for the 21st century.”
Conservative Highlands and Islands MSP Edward Mountain said he was not surprised at the figures because around 60% of his mailbox relates to health issues.
He added: “To me it underscores a chronic management problem which needs to be resolved.”
Carolyn Caddick, Liberal Democrat councillor for Inverness South, said last-minute cancellations for these kind of reasons were “really unacceptable”, given the stress people are already under.
The Scottish Lib Dem economy spokeswoman added: “People know their operation is coming up so they clear their diary.
“The consequence of having it cancelled at the last minute means any pre-planning they have done has been completely wasted.
“Not only have they lost work, they then can’t plan for the next two months. The amount of time they have got to take off effectively doubles. Then they worry about it being cancelled again.”
She also said more needs to be done to attract staff to the Highlands.
Nicola Sinclair, of the Caithness Health Action Team, said the impact of short notice cancellations was particularly great in remote areas.
The independent Wick and East Caithness councillor added: “They are having to make travel and accommodation arrangements – and might have waited for many months to get the operation.
“For older and vulnerable people in particular, it exacerbates the stress they are already under, making a difficult situation more difficult.”
An NHS Grampian spokesman insisted the decision to postpone an operation was never taken lightly.
He added: “We will always explore every opportunity to avoid this situation.
“It is important to stress these figures relate to planned operations and not procedures carried out in an emergency.
“We will always prioritise care based on the medical need, however we would like to apologise to any patients who have been inconvenienced by the re-scheduling of a procedure and we will continue to give as much notice as possible when this does occur.”
An NHS Highland spokesman said all efforts are made to ensure any cancellations are kept to a minimum.
He added: “Any patients that have been cancelled are prioritised and rebooked as quickly as possible.
“Staff have worked hard to identify improvements and this month put in new arrangements which have significantly reduced cancellations allowing many more operations to take place. This will not only reduce the upset of having cancelled operations but will also reduce waiting times.”
Health Secretary Shona Robison said,
“In the year ending June 2017 there were 32,000 planned operations carried out in NHS Grampian. Cancellations due to capacity or non-clinical reasons represent a small percentage of these.
“There are sometimes very good clinical reasons why an operation can’t take place, but clearly we want to keep cancellations to an absolute minimum. A lot of work has gone on with boards to reduce cancellations, and we’ll continue working with the boards so we can see sustained improvement.
“We have also seen staffing levels within NHS Grampian increase to over 12,100 whole time equivalent under this Government, including a 38.5 per cent increase in consultants.”
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