Twenty non-urgent operations have been cancelled at Colchester General Hospital in the last seven weeks.
Essex Rivers Healthcare Trust, which runs the hospital, said this was due to emergency cases needing beds or treatment space.
The spokesman said that in line with the Patients Charter the patients are given a new date for their operation which is within a month of the cancelled date.
He also said the Trust was no longer sending patients to the nearby private Oaks Hospital for routine operations to help cut waiting lists figures. In March 60 people were treated there.
The spokesman said the trust paid for this from extra Government money given out to relieve winter pressures on the hospital at a time when it has limited bed space.
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