PERFORMANCE: The chief executive of the £1.1bn-turnover Barts Health NHS Trust has ordered an audit to determine the number of operations cancelled the day before surgery.

Minutes of the April board meeting said: “The number of patients cancelled before the day of surgery, a metric not typically included in standard NHS reporting, remained of concern and the chief executive [Peter Morris] had commissioned an audit to understand the extent of the problem.

“Where it proved necessary to cancel a patient, they should immediately be offered an apology, an explanation and a revised date for surgery.”