A new study has revealed that hospitals in England and Wales undertook almost 1.6 million fewer operations last year because of the pandemic.

Published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, the authors of the study claim that their findings are the first to quantify the number of people whose surgery did not happen because hospitals were too busy treating coronavirus patients. They warn that people with cancer will die as a result of having to wait for care while the delays will leave other patients less likely to improve after treatment.

The study found that in total 1,568,664 operations fewer than expected went ahead in England and Wales during 2020 and predict that the total will soar to 2.4 million by the end of this year.

Hospitals were under such pressure last year that the nearly 1.6 million cancellations included 108,406 operations classed as emergency surgery – including broken legs, coronary heart disease or appendicitis – that should have been done within three days. Additionally, 92,420 operations classed as urgent, which hospitals were meant to carry out within 28 days, were not done on time.

Hospitals undertook 904,761 (36 per cent) fewer semi-urgent operations, such as for prostate cancer or removal of a gall bladder, than would have been expected. They also performed 481,150 fewer elective procedures, which include hip and knee replacements, breast reconstructions and hernia repairs – a fall of 52% on the number that would have been expected without coronavirus disruption.

Tom Dobbs of Swansea University Medical School, the co-lead author of the study, said: “The interruption of surgical treatment detailed in our research will be felt by millions of patients for many years to come. Delays in the diagnosis and surgical management of cancer patients will lead to an increase in deaths, while those waiting for semi-urgent and elective surgery are more likely to experience a worsening of their condition, with some procedures made more problematic and less likely to succeed.”