NHS cancelled 446 urgent operations in November, almost double the number in the same month last year

The number of NHS patients in England who had urgent operations cancelled hit record numbers in November, soaring to almost double the level a year ago, according to government data.



Opposition parties seized on the figures from NHS England as fresh evidence that ministers have failed to address underlying problems, particularly the underfunding of social care.

The number of urgent operations cancelled in November climbed to 446, from 357 in October. In November last year there were 243 such operations cancelled.

NHS England confirmed that the November 2016 figure was the highest since such records began to be kept six years ago.

The Liberal Democrat former health minister Norman Lamb said the figures were a damning indictment of the government’s failure to adequately fund the NHS and social care.

He said many mainly elderly people were ending up in hospital because of insufficient services to look after them at home or in the community. Lib Dem calls for an extra £400m in emergency funding to help see the NHS through the winter were ignored in the chancellor’s autumn statement, he said.

“Now patients are paying the price for the government’s short-sightedness, with record levels of cancelled operations and hospitals being stretched to breaking point,” Lamb said. “Waiting for an operation is stressful enough even when everything goes smoothly. To be told that your operation has been delayed heaps even more strain on patients.”

Labour’s health spokesman, Jonathan Ashworth, said the figures were “completely unacceptable”. He accused Theresa May of not treating the NHS as a priority.

“Given the urgent nature of these operations, the consequences of delays could be very serious indeed. Theresa May has no interest in the NHS and as she continues to starve it of the resources it needs, the result is we are likely to see waiting lists across the board continue to rise.”

MPs are worried that hospitals in their areas are close to breaking point even before any severe winter weather has hit most parts of the country. This month the health service regulator asked hospitals to postpone all non-urgent operations in order to free up beds for the most urgent cases. Non urgent operations include hip replacements, hernia and cataract operations.

NHS England figures also show record levels of bed occupancy for the most critical cases, including seriously ill children. The occupancy rate of paediatric critical was 88.4% in November,compared with 76.4% the previous month and 88.1% in November last year.

This month the Observer revealed that seriously sick children were having to be transported long distances to receive intensive care because of a lack of beds in cities. Some units in cities including London and Leicester were forced to declare themselves as “at capacity”.

The director of communications at NHS England, Simon Enright, tweeted: “It is true that the NHS is very busy at the moment – record demand.”