Professor John Robertson OBA
From Cancelled planned operations Month ending 31 October 2025, published yesterday, the above and:
There were 27,862 operations planned to take place across NHS Scotland. This is 12.2% higher (+3,038) than the number planned a year previously in October 2024 (24,824) and the highest number of operations planned since January 2020. Overall, the number of planned operations has been increasing since the COVID-19 pandemic impacted service provision.
Of all planned operations during October 2025 in NHS Scotland, 783 (2.8%) were cancelled by the hospital for clinical reasons, 828 (3.0%) were cancelled by the patient, 894 (3.2%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 96 (0.3%) were cancelled for other reasons.
Note that only those procedures cancelled for capacity or non-clinical reasons can be used to judge performance, a performance that is by any standards deeply impressive.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
The media attack line will be that nearly all of these are ‘minor’ operations, but ‘major’ ones, it will be implied without evidence, have plummeted.
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