Elective
Planned and scheduled in advance, rather than performed as an emergency.
What it means
Elective means planned in advance, as opposed to emergency or urgent care. A hip replacement, a hernia repair and a planned caesarean are all elective procedures.
Elective does not mean optional, cosmetic or unnecessary. This is a persistent misunderstanding. An elective operation may be entirely essential — it is simply one that can safely be scheduled rather than done tonight.
The advantage of planning is real: pre-operative assessment, optimisation of other conditions, and lower complication rates than the same operation done as an emergency.
In practice
NHS waiting-list figures refer to elective care. Elective procedures are the ones cancelled first when emergency pressures rise.
"Semi-elective" or "expedited" describes something needing doing soon, but not immediately.
Why it matters
Waiting for elective treatment is not the same as being untreated. Symptoms changing significantly while on a waiting list is a reason to be re-assessed rather than to wait quietly, since urgency can change.
Private assessment can shorten the diagnostic part of a pathway, but treatment on the NHS still returns to the NHS waiting list.
Clinically reviewed by Dr Mohammad Zubair Khan, GMC 7563469
Last reviewed
August 30, 2026