The figures revealed almost 20,000 last minute operation cancellations took over 28 days to rearrange last year in breach of NHS standards.

Almost a quarter (23%) of 85,400 cancelled operations took a over a month to rearrange in 2024/25 representing a threefold rise on the 7% figure in 2015/16, according to the research.

Liberal Democrat health and social care spokesperson, Helen Morgan, said: ‘Patients are being left in the lurch, forced to wait in pain and distress for potentially life altering operations. Each of these delays represents an extra month that someone's misery is prolonged.'

The Lib Dems also revealed the number of lung cancer patients not treated within the 62-day standard from a referral rose by 40% since 2019 to 3,750 last year.

Liberal Democrat MP for Wokingham, Clive Jones, said: ‘This embrace of dither and delay on building new hospitals or fixing the crisis in social care, so crucial to fixing the underlying problem in the health service, is failing patients. It is time ministers realised this and showed real ambition in ending these unacceptable delays and getting patients the care they deserve.'

A DHSC spokesperson said: ‘Appointments cancelled last minute are an enormous pain for patients and a big cost to the NHS.

‘Years of underinvestment in the NHS has left it with outdated, creaking machinery that breaks down and causes thousands of cancelled appointments.

‘That's why we are announcing £70m investment in new radiotherapy machines, using cutting-edge equipment to save 13,000 cancelled appointments a year, cut waiting times for treatment, and modernise the health service.

 ‘While there is more to do, our plan for change has put the NHS on the road to recovery.'