Waiting list patients ‘should be on standby to fill cancellations’

Patients stuck on NHS waiting lists for routine surgery should be kept on “standby” and contacted at short notice to fill last-minute cancellations, a report has suggested.

There are 135,000 on-the-day surgical cancellations in the UK each year because of patient absence or illness, costing the NHS an estimated £400 million.

Instead of leaving operating theatres unused, a report by the health tech firm Proximie has called for the NHS to implement a new “standby patient system” to drive up efficiency and productivity in the health service. This would require hospitals to identify patients living nearby who could be called up with a few hours’ notice to get operations before their scheduled date.

The system could cover all elective surgery, including hernia repair and knee or hip replacements, helping to tackle waiting lists of 7.4 million and reduce the number of people having to wait months for life-changing surgery.

Some NHS trusts are already testing the standby approach, finding it can save money and cut waiting lists. In one pilot at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, surgeons put 12 patients who had been waiting on average 44 weeks for operations on a standby list.

Six were able to get their operations earlier after being called to fill on-the-day cancellations and reported excellent experiences of the initiative. The scheme saved the trust £15,240, and surgeons concluded that it “provides a cost-effective solution to optimise theatre utilisation, reduce waiting list times and improve patient care”.

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Source: The Times, 23 April 2025