HOSPITALS in mid Cheshire saw a five-year high of operations cancelled at the last minute in 2016/17.

Figures from a Freedom of Information request on the Mid Cheshire NHS Foundation Trust website show that 354 cancellations were made due to non-clinical reasons in the last financial year as opposed to 223 in 2012/13.

These were split into five categories: 60 for unavailable or sick staff, 73 for lack of beds, 14 for missing equipment, 159 for an over-run theatre list and 48 for other reasons.

A Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said: “We are continually looking at ways in which we can reduce the number of operations cancelled on the same day and have already seen an improvement in 2017/18.

“Over the last few years the Trust has worked to reduce waiting times for both outpatient appointments and elective procedures.

“This has seen an increase in patients choosing Mid Cheshire Hospitals as their hospital of choice.

“Whilst the Trust has seen an increase in elective activity it has continually delivered an improving position against the national 18 week position, with the Trust delivering well above the 92 per cent national threshold.”

In 2016/17 34,162 operations were carried out by the trust, which runs Leighton Hospital, Northwich Infirmary and Elmhurst Intermediate Care Centre. There were 27,820 in 2012/13.

The MCHT spokesman added: “The Trust has a dedicated Cancelled Operations Transformation project that is looking at a range of schemes such as reminder systems, an awareness campaign on the impact of last minute cancellations, and audits to determine the root cause of the reasons for cancellations.

“The Trust has also undertaken significant work around patient flow to ensure that elective procedures are not cancelled due to a lack of inpatient bed availability.

“Where any elective operations are postponed we make every effort to re-arrange them as soon as possible.

“We also encourage any patients who are unable to attend an appointment to contact us at their earliest convenience so that we can help to reduce waiting times for others.”

NHS England’s definition of last-minute cancellations means on the day the patient was due to arrive, after the patient arrived in hospital or on the day of the operation or surgery.