
The number of scheduled operations in hospitals dropped once again in April, new figures have shown.
Monthly data from Public Health Scotland showed there were 18,392 planned operations for April – a drop of 16.4% from 22,000 in March.
However, 1,712 of these operations – 9.3% of all those planned – were cancelled on the day the patient was due to be treated, or on the day before.
Of the 1,712 operations that were cancelled, 567 were put back by the hospital due to clinical reasons while 456 were impacted due to capacity or non-clinical reasons.
Some 616 operations were cancelled by the patient and a further 73 were due to “other reasons”.
The number of planned operations is still lower than when compared to February 2020, prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
February 2020 saw 27,645 surgeries planned – meaning April 2022’s figure is 33.5% less in comparison.
The number of planned surgeries later fell to 20,192 in March 2020, before dropping to just 3,406 by April that year.