Nearly 2,000 operations were cancelled at the last minute in Sussex last year.

Some 1,923 operations were called off either on the day or once the patient had arrived in the year to March last year by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.

It was fewer than the 2,473 operations cancelled the year before but up from 1,809 in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic.

NHS guidance says this can happen for a variety of reasons, including surgeons becoming unavailable, emergency cases needing to be dealt with, or administrative errors.

But the British Medical Association said the cancellations were a sign of a "creaking" NHS.

Across England and Wales there were 75,120 cancellations in 2023, down from 86,364 in 2019.

The Patients' Association called the drop in the number of cancelled operations "good news".

Rachel Power, chief executive of the organisation, said: "Having planned surgery cancelled can be very upsetting, especially for patients who have been waiting for many months for surgery.

"Where trusts are unable to reschedule surgery within the 28 days, they should be providing support and clear information to patients about what the next steps are for them."

Meanwhile, an NHS spokesman blamed recent doctor strikes.

He said: "Since December 2022 the NHS has had to reschedule more than 1.3 million acute inpatient and outpatient appointments due to industrial action, and while staff have worked incredibly hard to reschedule these as quickly as possible, the ongoing strikes have meant the capacity to do this has been constrained.

"Despite this, latest figures show hardworking NHS staff delivered more elective activity in 2023 than in any other year since the start of the pandemic – with more than 17.3 million treated – meaning the elective waiting list has fallen for the third consecutive month in December."

The BMA rejected the claim that strikes were contributing to last-minute cancellations, saying the BMA had "given adequate notice to trusts ahead of strike days so they can prepare and reschedule appropriately".

"Doctors are taking industrial action because we know that without valuing doctors’ skills and expertise properly, they will continue to leave the NHS, and without enough doctors, patients will continue to bear the brunt,” it said.