The latest quarterly national statistics on NHS cancelled elective operations produced by the Department of Health were released on 8^th February 2013 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

NHS cancelled elective operations figures for the quarter ending 31^st December 2012 include data for England, Strategic Health Authorities, and NHS Trusts.

The figures shown are the number of last minute cancelled elective operations for non clinical reasons and, of those, the number subsequently re-admitted within 28 days.

The key points from the latest release are:

During the quarter ending 31 December 2012, 16,211 operations were cancelled at the last minute for non-clinical reasons. In the same period in 2011, there were 14,696 cancelled operations.

• Cancelled operations during the quarter represented 0.9% of all elective activity compared to 0.8% in the corresponding period in 2011.
• Of these cancellations 651 (4.0%) of patients were not treated within 28 days of a cancellation.  In the same period in 2011, 553 (3.8%) of patients were not treated within 28 days.

Full tables are available here

 http://transparency.dh.gov.uk/?p=19741