Equipment must be clean

A total of 1,765 operations were cancelled in 2005/06 - up 40% from 1,252 in 2002/03.

The figures were obtained by Conservative MP Grant Shapps under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

The government stressed the number of NHS operations cancelled at the last minute was at its lowest since 1999.

Surgeons at the last minute are discovering that the surgical instruments still have blood on them Grant Shapps Conservative MP

But Mr Shapps said the figures demonstrated that the financial problems in the NHS were compromising patient care.

He said lack of resources meant dirty instruments - or the wrong ones - were being sent to operating theatres.

He said: "As the government seeks ever more creative ways to dig itself out of the NHS funding crisis it has started to pressurise hospitals to cut costs by sharing instrument cleaning between hospitals.

"This is a false economy. These figures reveal a huge jump in cancelled operations simply because surgeons at the last minute are discovering that the surgical instruments still have blood on them.

"Apart from the financial cost, this new system is not working for patients who have prepared themselves to go under the knife, only then to find that their operations are cancelled at the eleventh hour."

Patients put first

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said operations cancelled at the last minute were at their lowest level since 1999.

"In fact, over 99% of operations - around 1.4 million - were carried out on schedule from April to June last year, and the number of cancellations was 3,000 less that the same period in the previous year.

"Part of the reason for this is because we have introduced the cancelled operations guarantee where patients must be guaranteed an operation within 28 days of cancellation for non-clinical reasons.

"This illustrates how the NHS always puts the needs and expectations of patients first.