549 operations cancelled in October for 'non-clinical' reasons
Almost 550 hospital operations were cancelled in one month because of issues including staffing or a lack of beds, new figures have revealed.
Across NHS Scotland in October, 549 operations did not go ahead because of capacity or non-clinical reasons'' - a rise from 488 the previous month.
A total of 31,491 operations had been scheduled for October but 3,050 were cancelled for a variety of reasons, meaning almost one in 10 (9.7%) of surgeries were affected.
There were 1,178 procedures that were cancelled by patients, while a further 1,066 were postponed by the hospital for clinical reasons - such as the person not having fasted properly before surgery.
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Jim Hume said the rise in surgeries not going ahead for non-clinical reasons was worrying.
He said: There are any number of good reasons why an operation might need to be postponed, but the increase in operations cancelled for non-clinical reasons is clearly a concern. The number of patients missing operations through no fault of their own has increased every month since June.
We all want to see patients get the care they need as quickly as possible but at present, NHS staff are unable to accommodate nearly 550 patients a month who require surgery.
Doctors and nurses are working flat out. With winter upon us, pressure on NHS services will only increase in coming months and SNP ministers need to ensure that staff have all the support they need.''
Health Secretary Shona Robison stressed only a small amount of the total number of operations planned were cancelled for non-clinical reasons''.
She added: During October more than 1,000 procedures were cancelled for clinical reasons, for example where the patient has not properly fasted. In these cases it would be completely inappropriate to go ahead with operations contrary to clinical advice.
The decision for a board to postpone an elective procedure is never taken lightly. Health boards work to ensure disruption to patients is always kept to an absolute minimum, and any postponed procedures will be rescheduled at the earliest opportunity.
Of course we are working with health boards to makes sure we manage capacity and planning in order to keep cancellations to a minimum.
I have also been clear with health boards that procedures for patients with the highest clinical need should not be cancelled.''