30,000 operations cancelled last year due to NHS staff shortages - Labour

30,000 operations were cancelled by NHS hospitals last year because there weren’t enough staff to deliver them. 

Data collected by the Labour Party from freedom of information requests made to NHS hospitals show the impact of crippling workforce shortages in the NHS. 

Staff shortages were the most common reason given for cancellations by hospitals, accounting for 1 in 5 of all operations cancelled for non-clinical reasons in 2021/22. 

Labour will address staff shortages and ensure patients can get treatment when they need it by:

• Doubling the number of medical school places, training 15,000 doctors a year
• Training 10,000 new nurses and midwives each year
• Doubling the number of district nurses qualifying every year
• Training 5,000 new health visitors 

The plans will be paid for by abolishing non-dom tax status, which allows residents of the UK to avoid paying taxes here.

Labour’s information request has also found that 13,000 operations were cancelled because of a shortage of beds, 5,700 because of equipment failure, 12,600 because of administrative errors, 15,500 as theatre lists overran, 9,500 because an emergency case took priority, and 250 due to adverse weather. 

In total, around 158,000 operations were cancelled for non-clinical reasons by NHS Trusts in 2021/22.

Of these, an estimated 10,000 were urgent operations, 2,500 were operations for cancer patients, and 8,000 were operations on children. Separate figures from the NHS show record numbers of operations cancelled last minute are not rearranged to take place within a month, with 1 in 5 patients waiting longer.

The number of cancelled operations has doubled since 2020/21, when 79,000 were cancelled. The number of operations cancelled due to staff shortages has trebled in the same time from 10,900 to 30,000, and the number cancelled due to faulty equipment increased from 4,800 to 5,700.

A 72 year-old woman had two operations to remove her brain tumour cancelled in September, which the hospital blamed on a lack of available beds.

Wes Streeting, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said:

“Patients are forced to wait longer for vital operations because the Conservatives have failed to train enough staff over the past 12 years. 

“Having operations cancelled causes huge disruption to patients, and prevents them from being able to get on with their lives.

“Labour will tackle this problem at its root. We will train a new generation of doctors and nurses so patients get the treatment they need, when they need it. We will abolish non-doms to pay for it because patients need treatment more than the wealthiest need a tax break and if you live and work in Britain you should pay your taxes here.”

Ends

Notes

• Source: Freedom of Information requests submitted 11 November 2022
   

• 50 out of 122 Acute trusts (39%) responded to the freedom of information request. The estimated totals have been found by extrapolating from the responses received, which were that, in 2021/22:

• The Government lowered the cap on medical school places this summer, cutting 3,000 places

Government defends medical student number cap - BBC News

• A 72 year-old woman had two operations to remove her brain tumour cancelled in September, which the hospital blamed on a lack of available beds.

Royal Stoke 'scandal' as gran, 72, has brain op cancelled twice - Stoke-on-Trent Live (stokesentinel.co.uk)

• In 2018/19, there were 79,000, which doubled to 158,000 in 21/22.

In 2018/19, 10,900 operations were cancelled due to staff shortages. In 21/22 that had trebled to 30,500.

The number of cancelled operations due to faulty equipment has increased from 4,800 to 5,700

FOI reveals the Conservatives’ damage to the NHS as thousands of operations are cancelled due to staff shortages and equipment failures - The Labour Party