OPERATIONS due to take place during November were almost 40% below the number scheduled the previous year, the latest NHS Scotland figures show.

There were 17,916 planned operations in November 2020, down from 29,766 in November 2019 – a drop of 11,850 (39.8%). This is also 1.2% below the 18,142 operations planned for October 2020.

The statistics, published by Public Health Scotland, also reveal that 1332 (7.4%) of all planned operations were cancelled the day before or on the day the patient was due to be treated. Of those, almost a quarter (24.9% of cancellations) were due to a lack of staff, hospital capacity or other non-clinical reasons.

A total of 552 (41.4%) cancelled operations were for clinical reasons, 381 (28.6%) were cancelled by the patient and 67 (5%) did not take place for other, unspecified reasons.

Following the publication of the statistics, Scottish Labour has called for the Scottish Government to address what the party called staff shortages in the NHS.

Health and social care spokeswoman, Monica Lennon, said: “Thousands of operations have been cancelled and the backlog is growing by the day. Scottish Labour called for routine testing for all frontline healthcare staff months ago, and for enhanced safety measures to minimise the risk of Covid spreading in our hospitals.

“SNP ministers have not acted quickly enough to roll out testing and maintain Covid safe wards, and this has undermined NHS capacity and recovery planning. Urgent action must be taken now to address staff shortages and to ensure patients get the care they need.”

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Meanwhile, A&E attendances dropped by almost 3000 in the week over Christmas to the lowest level since mid-May. The latest NHS Scotland statistics reveal that there were 16,452 A&E attendances during the week ending December 27.

Of those, 87.3% were seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours – up from 82.5% the week before.

A total of 251 patients had to wait more than eight hours to be seen, while 53 patients were left waiting for more than 12 hours.

Compared to the previous week, the number of people visiting A&E dropped by 2979. The last time A&E attendances were lower were during the week ending May 17, when 16,351 patients were seen. The figures, published by Public Health Scotland, also show A&E attendances were 8554, down from the same time last year – the week ending December 29 2019.

During that week, 85.1% of patients were seen within the four-hour target set by the Scottish Government.

November also saw the third-lowest number of patients attend A&E, according to the figures.

Just 100,369 patients attended throughout November, with only April and May’s figures – when Scotland was in the midst of the first coronavirus lockdown – recording lower levels of attendees.