Almost 2,000 planned operations were cancelled at the “last minute”, official data has shown.
Public Health Scotland statistics published on Tuesday revealed there were 23,876 operations scheduled across the NHS during March 2024.
However, 8.2%, or 1,950 operations, were cancelled on or the day before the patient was due to be treated.
A slight improvement has been recorded compared to the previous week where 8.7%, or 2,113 of the 24,268 scheduled operations were cancelled.
In March, 738 (3.1%) of operations were cancelled by the hospital for clinical reasons, 642 (2.7%) were cancelled by the patient.
Some 480 (2%) were cancelled by the hospital for capacity or non-clinical reasons, while 90 (0.4%) were due to other reasons.
Dr Sandesh Gulhane, health spokesman for the Scottish Tories, said the “dreadful” statistics would be taking a toll on patients “mentally and physically”.
He said: “These dreadful figures expose once again the overwhelming failure of Humza Yousaf’s flimsy Covid recovery plan, which we called out at the time
“Despite the best efforts of my dedicated colleagues, his plan has miserably failed to remobilise crucial services in our NHS. That means nearly 2,000 patients a month are still having operations cancelled at the last minute.
“That will be taking a huge toll on them mentally as well as physically.
“The SNP’s ongoing broken promises in eradicating delayed discharge from our hospitals, means beds are being taken up by patients who are healthy enough to go home, rather than those who need urgent procedures carried out.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Cancelled operations are continuing to fall and this is the lowest percentage (8.2%) since July 2023.
“We are working closely with health boards across Scotland to maximise capacity and ensure patients who have had operations cancelled are seen as quickly as possible.”
”Surgical procedures can be cancelled or postponed for a number of reasons including clinical reasons and those cancelled by the patient.
“Of all planned operations in March 2024, only 2% were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons.
“We have made it clear to boards that patients with the greatest clinical need, such as cancer patients, should not have their operations cancelled.”
The statistics also showed there were 1,547 fewer operations planned for March 2024 compared to the previous year.