Most hospitals have no operations at the weekend despite national backlog of 7.5 million procedures
- Fifty-one percent of hospitals do not have a scheduled operation on the weekend
More than half of hospitals close their operating rooms on weekends, despite a national backlog of at least 7.5 million procedures.
Fifty-one percent of hospitals do not have operating rooms where scheduled surgeries, such as hip and knee replacements, are performed on Saturdays and Sundays.
This is based on a sample of 81 hospital trusts in England that responded to a Freedom of Information request.
Figures provided to Labor also show that four times as many operations take place on a weekday than on weekends.
That is based on responses from 49 hospital trusts, which reported carrying out an average of 795 procedures on weekdays in 2022/2023, compared to just 176 on Saturdays or Sundays.
Fifty-one percent of hospitals do not have operating rooms where scheduled surgeries, such as hip and knee replacements, are performed on Saturdays and Sundays. (Stock Image)
As of the end of October, an estimated 7.71 million routine hospital treatments were waiting to be performed, and more than six million patients are on waiting lists in discomfort.
Dennis Reed of the group Silver Voices, which campaigns for older patients, said: 'We are in a crisis situation so we have to be on a war footing, and that means operations during non-social hours – operations may be carried out 24 hours a day . day.'
Labor has promised to 'ramp up' the number of hospital appointments at weekends and has pledged £1.1 billion to tackle the NHS backlog by asking doctors and nurses to work overtime at weekends and evenings.
The Ministry of Health did not respond to a request for comment.