Number of NHS operations increases

13th January 2026

Health Secretary Neil Gray has thanked NHS staff for their efforts as latest figures show that in the 12 months to November 2025 the number of operations carried out increased by 5.3% on the same period the year before.

A total of 272,465 operations were performed during this time according to the statistics from Public Health Scotland.

In November alone, 794 operations took place each day - up from 756 a day in November 2024.

The 12 month period also saw the highest number of operations performed in a single month since January 2020, with 25,261 procedures carried out over the 31 days of October.

Today's statistics come after Public Health Scotland figures last week showed progress in other areas including a 12.8% fall in the number waits over 52 weeks for a new outpatient appointment between October and November 2025

Health Secretary Neil Gray said:

"It is welcome to see sustained and continued improvement in the number of operations carried out, despite ongoing pressures on services. This is further evidence that our NHS has turned a corner.

"I am extremely grateful to all the staff who work so hard every day to make progress like this possible.

"We want to build on this success and we are investing £135.5 million to tackle the longest waits for procedures and operations.

"Our record investment in the NHS this year is allowing us to target specific areas that are experiencing long waits, reducing backlogs and getting people the appointments and treatments they need as quickly as possible."

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides a monthly update on the number of operations in NHS Scotland that were cancelled the day before or on the day of treatment. Cancellation reasons are grouped into cancelled by the hospital for clinical reasons, cancelled by the patient, cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, cancelled for other reasons and cancelled for unknown reason.

Main points
During November 2025:

There were 25,996 operations planned to take place across NHS Scotland. This is 5% higher (+1,232) than the number planned in November 2024 (24,764). Overall, the number of planned operations has been increasing since COVID-19 affected services, albeit with a levelling off in the 12-month rolling average between May 2024 and June 2025. In the latest 12 months, from December 2024 to November 2025 (298,246), there was a 5.2% increase (+14,796) compared to the previous 12 months (283,450). However, it is still 10.4% lower (-34,744) than the number of operations planned to take place between December 2018 and November 2019 (332,990).
In NHS Scotland, 8.4% (2,185) of planned operations were cancelled the day before or on the day the patient was due to be treated. This is the same rate reported a year previously in November 2024 (8.4%; 2,090), but a lower rate than November 2019 (9.1%; 2,685). Across NHS boards, the percentage ranged from 5.0% to 13.1% in the most recent month.
Of all planned operations during November 2025 in NHS Scotland, the cancellation reasons were; 798 (3.1%) by the hospital for clinical reasons, 814 (3.1%) by the patient, 504 (1.9%) by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 69 (0.3%) for other reasons.

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