Cancelled operations toll is kept ‘secret’ in official NHS figures as THOUSANDS of axed surgeries go unreported by hospitals
Only ops axed the day a patient is admitted are counted
TENS of thousands of cancelled operations are not being included in official NHS figures.
The true total gets hidden because of a loophole in the way hospitals have to own up, a probe revealed.
Only ops axed the day a patient is admitted or the day of the planned surgery are counted.
Procedures scrapped one to three days before a patient is due to turn up get excluded.
A Freedom of Information request to all 156 NHS trusts in England exposed the scandal.
Among the 74 that responded 33,400 operations were recorded as having been cancelled last year.
But in reality a total of 41,474 never went ahead.
Main reasons were lack of beds or staff shortages.
RELATED STORIES
Katherine Murphy, of the Patients Association, said: “You can’t underestimate the upset for patients, their family, their friends and everybody else if an operation is cancelled.
“We are talking about individuals who are often in pain or suffering.”
NHS England said: “The proportion of patients seeing operations cancelled at the last minute remains under one per cent.”