Beleaguered hospitals have to cancel 20 ops every day

NEARLY 20 operations a day are being cancelled by Scotland’s NHS because hospitals are unable to cope with demand.

The SNP Government was yesterday accused of ‘mismanagement’ of the health service as new figures revealed that, in the first five months of this year, 2,912 appointments – or 19.3 a day – were postponed because of capacity or other ‘non-clinical’ reasons.

The official data also shows that there was an increase in cancellations in May, the most recent month which the information is available for.

Anas Sarwar, Scottish Labour’s health spokesman, said: ‘These official figures once again reveal the extent of the SNP’s mismanagement of our NHS.

‘An average of nearly 20 operations are being cancelled every day so far this year – that’s almost 3,000 patients since January. This is simply unacceptable.’

The new data, published by ISD Scotland, shows that 13,100 of the 141,638 operations planned to take place in Scotland’s hospitals in the five months to the end of May 2017 were cancelled.

Of them, 2,912 were cancelled by the NHS because of ‘capacity or non-clinical reasons’, which can include unavailability of surgeons or other staff, shortages of beds or equipment failure.

Yesterday’s official figures also show that in May 2017 more than 1,000 people remained stuck in hospital despite being cleared to leave, while the SNP also missed its A&E waiting time target.

The number of cancelled appointments soared from 821 in April to 1,001 in May, including an increase from 490 to 512 in cancellations for non-clinical reasons.

The largest number of these types of cancellations were in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, where 78 patients were told their treatment would not go ahead, followed by NHS Lothian, with 69 cases. Across Scotland, 1.7 per cent of operations were cancelled because of capacity or shortages.

The NHS is currently struggling with increasing numbers of vacant consultant posts and soaring waiting times in accident and emergency wards.

Last month, public spending watchdog Audit Scotland revealed that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde paid out £497,000 to one company to provide a consultant for just nine months.

Responding to the figures, Health Secretary Shona Robison said: ‘In May there was on average almost 1,000 operations per day carried out in Scotland’s hospitals – with the lowest ever rate of overall cancellations since these statistics were created and only 1.7 per cent cancelled due to nonclinical or capacity reasons.

‘Today’s statistics also show improving A&E performance, with Scotland’s A&Es being the best in the UK for over two years, plus encouraging improvement in the delayed discharge rate. I am confident that the recently announced extra £9million to improve patient flow through hospitals this year will help us continue to reduce delays.’

A report by the Nuffield Trust think tank, published today, also warns of ‘potentially serious financial problems’ facing Scotland’s NHS. Although it concluded that boards south of the Border could learn some lessons from the Scottish NHS, it warns of a ‘serious financial predicament’ facing the health service in Scotland.

Lead author Mark Dayan said: ‘The dark cloud on the horizon threatening these strengths is potentially serious financial problems.’

‘This is simply unacceptable’

AFTER a decade in power, the SNP presides over a health service that’s barely fit for purpose. Nearly 20 operations are being cancelled every day because hospitals are simply unable to cope.

And while under-pressure staff struggle to deal with their caseloads, many of the buildings they work in are crumbling and in desperate need of repair.

When the SNP came to power at Holyrood in 2007 and Nicola Sturgeon was appointed Health Secretary, she promised to protect and preserve the NHS.

Instead, neither Miss Sturgeon nor any of her successors ensured the service kept step with change. The result is that the NHS is in dire need of major surgery.

The establishment of the health service is one of the greatest achievements in British political history; elected members from across the spectrum are united in loudly proclaiming support for the medical staff upon whom so many depend.

But words can be cheap. Doctors, nurses and – crucially – patients need action. That means ensuring the service is properly funded, and hospitals are clean and safe.

During every election campaign in living memory, political leaders of every party have promised they’ll make the NHS a priority. But the troubling reality is that, in power, the SNP have done nothing of the sort.

Headline-grabbing policies such as free prescriptions and free parking at hospitals are no replacement for the sort of investment – in staff and buildings – that’s needed.

The First Minister has spent too long obsessing over independence at the cost of public services. She should be ashamed of the current state of the NHS. Miss Sturgeon plans a summer of pro-independence campaigning. If she was truly concerned with curing the NHS’s ills, she’d put sorting out its many problems before her constitutional obsession.