Quarterly Monitoring of Cancelled Operations

The Quarterly Monitoring of Cancelled Operations (QMCO) data collection monitors the number of elective operations across the NHS cancelled at the last minute for non-clinical reasons.

The data is used by NHS England and NHS Improvement to assess providers against the cancelled operations standard (when a patient's operation is cancelled by the hospital at the last minute for non-clinical reasons, the trust will have to offer another binding date within a maximum of the next 28 days or fund the patient's treatment at the time and hospital of the patient's choice).

In addition, the data is made available to provide information to the public and other stakeholders to highlight where cancelled operations are an issue, and how this has changed over time. 

This Notice is served on:

• NHS Providers
• Private providers of NHS-funded services.

This is a quarterly data collection which started in 1994. Submission to NHS Digital's Strategic Data Collections Service (SDCS) started in January 2018.

Update: 16 November 2021: Version 1.1 of this Notice issued to correct frequency (from monthly to quarterly) and for a general refresh of the document template (no other substantive changes made).