From Cancelled planned operations Month ending 31 May 2026, published today, we can extract the above in a graphical form and read:

There were 24,951 operations planned to take place across NHS Scotland. This is 0.5% less (-116) than the number planned in May 2025 (25,067). Over the course of the last 12 months, from June 2025 to May 2026 (308,249), there was a 7.7% increase (+21,911) compared to the previous 12 months (286,338). This is consistent with the trend of generally increasing numbers of planned operations since March 2021. 

Of all planned operations during May 2026 in NHS Scotland, 788 (3.2%) were cancelled the day before or on the day of treatment by the hospital for clinical reasons, 689 (2.8%) by the patient, 510 (2%) by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 85 (0.3%) for other reasons.

Source: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancelled-planned-operations/cancelled-planned-operations-month-ending-31-may-2026

This goes back for many years. Around only 2% of operations are cancelled because of, for example, staff illnesses or operation theatre congestion due to unexpected factors such as a surge in demand after a freeze in temperature or a heatwave or injuries at a major event.

In a huge organisation with thousands of staff and around 300 000 procedures every year, 98% capacity is an impressive measure of both the efficiency of the service and the effectiveness of government in making sure it is strong enough to be so.

On top of all that, this is being maintained over a period of meeting increasing load as the system recovers from the pandemic and is now only 7.7% below the March 2020 level.