MOSCOW (Sputnik) — More than 20,000 patients had their operations canceled at the last minute by National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in England in the first three months of 2015, according to NHS statistics released Friday.
It is the worst performance by the NHS in a decade after over 21,500 operations were canceled by English hospitals in the first three months of 2005.
The figures show that 20,464 operations were called off across the country in the quarter ending March 31, 2015, signaling a year-on-year increase of almost 15 percent.
The NHS press release also revealed that 1,787, or 8.7 percent of the patients, whose operations were postponed so far this year, did not receive treatment with the 28-day time limit, which is required by NHS regulations.
Last month, the UK Conservative Party pledged to spend an extra $12.5 billion funding the NHS annually by 2020, before winning a majority in the country's parliament in last week's general election.
