This project analyzes operation cancellations in NHS Scotland between June 2015 - Jan 2024 to understand trends, reasons for cancellations, and their regional distribution. Using data visualization, statistical analysis (OLS regression, hypothesis testing), and comparison by NHS board, we derive insights into healthcare efficiency and disruptions.
- Main reasons for cancellations:
- Patient-initiated (36.1%) and clinical reasons (35.2%) account for over 70% of all cancellations.
- Nonclinical capacity issues (24.0%) (e.g., lack of beds) are another significant factor.
- Regional disparities:
- NHS Borders has the highest nonclinical capacity cancellations, potentially linked to bed-blocking issues.
- NHS Orkney has higher cancellation rates due to travel-related issues.
- Impact of COVID-19:
- Sharp drop in planned operations at pandemic onset, followed by gradual recovery.
- No significant long-term effect on cancellation rates (based on t-test).
- Trend analysis:
- A slight downward trend in cancellation rates over time.
- High variance suggests other external factors influencing trends.
- Source: Public Health Scotland (PHS) OpenData.scot
- Datasets:
- Overall cancellations dataset (monthly data for Scotland)
- NHS board-specific cancellations dataset
- Health board metadata
- Data Cleaning & Processing: Merging, filtering, and handling missing values
- Exploratory Data Analysis: Visualization of trends and cancellation distributions
- Statistical Analysis:
- OLS Linear Regression (identifying trends)
- Two-sample t-test (pre/post COVID-19 analysis)