Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) has seen a 24.5 per cent decrease in the number of last-minute cancellations for planned operations, according to recent NHS England data.
Across both Queen’s Hospital in Romford and King George Hospital in Goodmayes, there were 505 operations cancelled for non-clinical reasons between July 2024 and June 2025, compared with 669 between July 2023 and June 2024.
According to NHS England, non-clinical reasons can include a lack of ward beds, the unavailability of key staff – including surgeons or anaesthetists – equipment failure, or admin errors.
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A last-minute cancellation is one which occurs on the day a patient was due to arrive in hospital, or even on the day of their operation itself.
The figures also show that, of these 505 operations cancelled in the year to June, almost one in five (18.6 per cent) patients were not treated within 28 days of the cancellation.
This is compared with 15.2 per cent of operations not rescheduled within this time period between July 2023 and June 2024.
Fiona Wheeler, chief operation officer at BHRUT, said the trust now holds weekly cancellation meetings to review any missed operations in an attempt to further reduce waiting lists.
Ms Wheeler told this paper: “Our teams do everything possible to avoid cancellations so we can reduce our waiting lists and get patients the care they need, and we’re constantly trialling new ways to do this.
“We now hold weekly cancellation meetings, where theatre and speciality colleagues go through any missed operations from the previous week, reviewing why it happened and how it can be avoided.
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“We also offer additional support to our anaesthetists.
“And all patients receive a call to check they can still attend their procedure.
“If any cannot be contacted, a replacement is discussed with the speciality team.”
Across England, more than 85,000 planned operations were cancelled at the last minute in the year to June 2025.
This is a seven per cent increase on the previous year and the highest figure since records began in 2003/04.
