Some 13,000 planned NHS operations were cancelled in the last two months as pressure on the health service increases.
Around 1,700 ops are having to be cancelled every week as the NHS battles staff shortages and tries to keep Covid and non-Covid patients apart.
The Royal College of Surgeons said the figures, collected by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), are “alarming” and mean thousands of patients being left in limbo and in pain.
The data, collected for the first time, shows that in October 6,335 elective care operations were cancelled and in November this increased to 6,726.
President Prof Neil Mortensen said: “It is very alarming that more than 13,000 planned operations were cancelled in the past two months alone.
“This means thousands of patients who had prepared themselves for vital hip, knee and other types of planned surgery, were left waiting in limbo for their treatment.
“NHS staff are working flat out, but as this report shows, there simply are not enough hospital beds to meet the huge demands we are seeing in the wake of the pandemic.
“Colleagues working in emergency medicine have been facing ‘winter pressures’ since the summer. Their concerns to avoid ‘corridor care’ are well-founded.
“The NHS is staffed by world-leading doctors and nurses - they cannot care for patients properly with a bed base the size of a postage stamp.”
The college is demanding the Government increase bed capacity in the NHS to the average among OECD nations.
The NHS has just 2.5 beds, well short of the OECD average of 4.7, meaning the health service in the country is closer to being overwhelmed.
