The number of operations cancelled in Fife has reached its highest level since the advent of monthly reporting.
Staff in the kingdom postponed elective procedures because of capacity or non-clinical reasons 38 times in March, according to official figures.
That is nearly double the previous month’s cancellations and the highest since May last year.
The reasons for cancelled operations include staff sickness and the lack of bed availability. The latter – known as bed-blocking – has been haunting NHS Fife for years. In Tayside, there were 37 cancellations, which was a drop on previous months this year but well above last year’s average.
Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesman Jim Hume said: “Twenty operations cancelled a day (in Scotland) because of a lack of staff, beds and equipment is unacceptable. Areas like Fife, Dumfries & Galloway and our island communities are still struggling.”
An NHS Tayside spokeswoman said their staff work hard to minimise disruption to planned elective surgery. “Delays to elective surgical procedures by NHS Tayside happen for a variety of reasons such as a procedure being deferred to a later date as a result of unplanned staff absences, an emergency procedure taking precedence or restricted availability of beds,” she said. No-one at NHS Fife was available for comment.
Health Secretary Shona Robison said the SNP will put an extra £2bn into the NHS and spend at least £1.3bn on merging health and social care, which is designed to combat bed-blocking. Analysis from economist John McLaren found the SNP are proposing the largest increase in NHS spending of all the parties.