Professor John Robertson OBA
From Public Health Scotland today:
During August 2025, there were 24,750 operations planned to take place across NHSScotland. This is 3.1% higher (+753) than the number planned a year previously in August 2024 (23,997). Overall, the number of planned operations had been steadily increasing since the COVID-19 pandemic impacted service provision, until May 2024 when increases in the 12-month rolling average began to plateau. Since June 2025 this has started to increase again. For instance, in the latest 12 months, from September 2024 to August 2025, there was a 2.6% increase (+7,288) in the number of planned operations (290,982) compared to the previous 12 months (283,694).
Of all planned operations during August 2025 in NHSScotland, 753 (3%) were cancelled by the hospital for clinical reasons, 754 (3%) were cancelled by the patient, 528 (2.1%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 75 (0.3%) were cancelled for other reasons.
Only the 2.1% cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons can be considered evidence of failure to perform. In most cases, these will have been due to unforeseen staff illness or a spike in emergency demand from, say, a multiple RTA of a factory incident.
In the context of increasing demand, this almost 98% performance is deeply impressive but will receive no media attention.
In the last week, BBC Scotland has only found space for:
Aberdeen operations postponed due to contaminated instruments: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cderj5g50rgo
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