Patient-related reasons for late surgery cancellations in a plastic and reconstructive surgery department

During the study period, 327 (5.5%) of all the scheduled operations were recorded as late cancellations. Of these, 45.3% were because of patient-related issues. Acute infection, change in medical condition not noticed before and operation no longer necessary were by far the most common causes of cancellation, comprising 63.5%. Sixty-six per cent of patient-related cancelled operations were performed later, especially when the specific reason was patient's acute illness. Root-cause analysis shows that most of the underlying reasons for the cancellations can be attributed to a failure in communication. The majority of these cancellations were considered to be preventable, thus emphasising the importance of communication and skilful multi-professional planning of the operating theatre list.