MORE than 900 operations were cancelled at the last minute at hospitals in the York trust last year, new figures show.
The data from NHS England shows that 164 operations were cancelled at the last minute in the three months to December at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - which was down from 197 the previous quarter.
This meant that a total of 931 operations were cancelled on the day the patient arrived at hospital, after they arrived, or on the day of the operation itself at the trust in 2022.
A spokesperson for the York trust apologised for the issues this may have cause for both patients and their families.
The spokesperson said: "We have been working hard to address our waiting lists and the backlog due to the impact of Covid. The extraordinary demands currently on our services, coupled with rising flu and Covid numbers, has seen us continue to have to balance creating additional capacity for patients who are acutely unwell and require admittance to hospital, with those needing planned operations and procedures.
“Unfortunately, this means we sometimes have to take the difficult decision to postpone some planned routine procedures. We never make these decisions lightly and we are fully aware that taking such action is disruptive to patients, for which we are sorry.”
Nationally, cancelled operations rose by nine per cent in the three months to December from the previous quarter - and 10 per cent on the same time period in 2021.
Around 4,590 patients were forced to wait more than 28 days to be treated following their operation being cancelled in the three months to December – up from 4,150 the previous quarter.
Of these, 50 were at the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals Trust – up from 40 in the previous quarter.
The Royal College of Surgeons of England said no surgeon wants to cancel operations, but the service was facing "high demand and the lack of social care" leading to a delay in discharging patients.
Earlier this month, NHS England announced 37 new surgical hubs, 10 expanded existing hubs and 81 new theatres dedicated to elective care.
The Department for Health and Social Care said bringing down waiting lists and providing the highest quality care is a "top priority" - and that the rise in cancellations was driven by the increase in booked operations.
A spokesperson said: "The NHS has already made strong progress in tackling the Covid backlogs, virtually eliminating waits of over two years for treatment – the first target in the Elective Recovery Plan – and all efforts are being made to deliver the next ambition to eliminate waits of 18 months or more by April."
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