Patients whose operations are cancelled at the last minute having to wait more than a month for them to be rescheduled

Surgeons carry out an operation to remove a tumour from a patient at an NHS hospital.

The Royal College of Surgeons has blamed “enormous pressure” on the NHS for the long waits faced across England, saying it is unlikely there will be a reduction in cancelled operations any time soon.

The data covers cancellations that were due to non-clinical reasons, such as bed or staff shortages.

NHS rules say non-urgent operations, such as hip or knee procedures, that are cancelled at the last minute should be rescheduled to a date within a maximum of 28 days.

However, of the 106 patients who had their surgery cancelled by the Northern Lincolnshire And Goole NHS Foundation Trust in the three months to June, 26 per cent were not treated within 28 days.

This was a huge increase on the same period last year, when only 5 per cent of patients weren’t treated within 28 day giving it one of the worst rates in the country.

Professor Cliff Shearman, vice president of the RCS said: “Having an operation that has been planned for months cancelled at short notice can be very stressful for patients and their families.

“Alongside practical considerations such as wasted time off work and rescheduling the surgery, patients will have to deal with the mental anguish of preparing for surgery all over again.

“They will also have to endure waiting longer in pain and discomfort, possibly unable to work or complete day-to-day tasks. In some cases, their condition may worsen.”

Professor Shearman also warned that the figures could be disguising the true scale of cancellations, as they do not include those cancelled at more than 24 hours notice.

A last-minute cancellation is defined as being either on the day that a patient was due to arrive, after the patient has arrived, or on the day of the operation itself.

If a trust is unable to reschedule the operation within 28 days, it must instead fund the treatment with another hospital.

It also forfeits its payment from the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group that funds healthcare in the area.

There were 18,806 last minute cancellations across England in the three months to June.

Of these, 11 per cent did not have their operations rescheduled within 28 days. This rate is the second highest since 2005, surpassed only in the preceding three months between January and March of this year, reaching 12 per cent.