THE number of operations being cancelled at Swindon’s Great Western Hospital has more than doubled in just three years, the latest figures from NHS England show.

During the second quarter of this year there were 94 operations cancelled at the last minute due to “non-clinical reasons”. Of these, four operations missed the NHS benchmark of being rescheduled within 28 days.

This marks a sharp increase from the same period between July and September in the 2013/14 financial year when there were 39 operations cancelled, with only one missing the 28 rescheduling date.

During the same period last year there were 81 cancelled operations, of which only one wasn’t rescheduled on time, and in 2014/15 there were 63 cancellations and one that missed the deadline.

The latest figures also mark an increase on the previous quarter of this year when there were 87 operations cancelled between April and June.

Additionally there were two patients who were not treated within 28 days of the cancellation of their operation at one of the trust’s 15 operating theatres.

One of the pledges in the NHS Constitution outlines that any operation cancelled for a non-clinical reason must be rescheduled for a new date within 28 days of the original operation.

This 28-day standard covers all planned and booked hospital operations, including day surgery, but doesn’t cover minor operations carried out at outpatient appointments or clinics.

Some of the reasons classified as non-clinical reasons for cancelling operations include no beds being available on the ward, no critical care beds being available and staff unavailability such as the surgeon, anaesthetist or operating theatre staff.

It also covers situations where an emergency case had to take priority in the operating theatre, operations took longer than expected so the list of operations over-ran, as well as equipment failure and administrative errors.

Responding to the latest figures, a spokesman for the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “Between, April and September more than 6,000 operations were carried out at the Great Western Hospital, with fewer than three-and-a-half per cent of procedures in each quarter needing to be rearranged.

“The overwhelming majority of patients are always given a new appointment date within 28 days.

“On rare occasions, there are circumstances out of our control, such as staff sickness, industrial action or an increase in emergency admissions, which mean that some routine operations need to be postponed.

“This is so that we can prioritise patients needing emergency or urgent care, including cancer patients and those with life threatening conditions.”

Operation cancellations at the hospital reached a six-year high, it was reported earlier in the autumn, with the first quarter of this year seeing 21 additional operation cancellations on the same period last year. The latest figures mark a further increase.