Cancelled operations up 10% to 18,000

ALMOST 18,000 operations were called off in hospitals last year as the number of cancellations rose substantially for the second year in a row.

Figures from the Health Service Executive show 17,761 planned procedures – 70% of them inpatient and 30% day cases – were cancelled in 2009, a 10% increase on the 2008 figure which was itself an 8.5% increase on the number in 2007.

The biggest and busiest hospitals had the highest cancellation figures, with St James’s in Dublin having by far the biggest number at 5,576. The next highest were also three Dublin facilities, Beaumont Hospital (2,200), Tallaght Hospital (1,928) and Mater Hospital (1,809), followed by Cork University Hospital (1,261).