NHS Scotland cancelled only 522 out of 30 535 or 1.7% of operations because of lack of capacity in October 2018 despite a 6.45 increase in demand from patients.
986 or 3.2% were cancelled by the patients themselves and 957 or 3.1% were cancelled by the hospital for clinical reasons ie in the interests of the patient.
Just out of interest:
During the quarter ending 30th September 2018, 18,460 operations were cancelled at the last minute for non-clinical reasons by NHS providers in England.
So, if we divide the above 18 460 by three to get a reasonable monthly figure, 6 153 patients had their operations cancelled in NHS England. England has ten times the population of Scotland so all things being equal you might expect Scotland to have had 615 such cancellations yet there were only 522. The NHS England rate of operation cancellation is 15% higher.
Footnote: It’s not clear how many of the Scottish cancellations were ‘at the last minute’.
Talking-up Scotland 