Patients stuck on NHS waiting lists should be made to improve their own health ... trends now

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Patients are costing the NHS millions of pounds a year by turning up for operations too unfit to go under the knife, a damning report reveals.

It says doctors are forced to cancel around 135,000 surgical procedures on the day each year, at a cost of £400million in lost theatre time.

A third of these are for potentially avoidable clinical reasons, including patients being unprepared for surgery or having unaddressed co-morbidities.

Now the Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC), is calling for waiting lists to be renamed 'preparation lists', with sick Britons ordered to get themselves into shape following a referral for surgery.

Long waits for care provide an opportunity for people to increase their physical activity, improve their diet and quit smoking, the alliance of medical groups adds.

Patients can also use the time to get other health issues under control and prepare mentally for the procedure and rehabilitation.

The CPOC's 'Blueprint for NHS efficiency' report says: 'The NHS has too many cancellations, complications, and lengthy hospital stays – often due to patients arriving for surgery in an unfit state.

'These can be avoided by concerted action to turn waiting lists into preparation lists, including screening and actively supporting patients to improve and maintain their health while they wait.

'If patients have addressable health issues they should be offered help to tackle these, including through "prehabilitation" programmes, which could involve support for exercise, smoking cessation and much else.

'This is not, and should not be, about erecting barriers to surgery: it is about giving patients the support they need to prepare themselves as best they can.'