Health watchdog Dr Foster suggests vital, non-emergency operations are being rationed by the NHS.
The review looked at operations for cataracts, hips and knees and found numbers are falling or levelling off – going against expectations for Britain’s ageing population.
Cataract operations in the NHS South Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group fell by 6.42 per cent from 904 to 846 between 2010 and 2012.
Hip and knee operations were almost on a par between the two years with 257 hip operations in 2012, just ten more than 2010, and knee operations up by only two to 300.
Clinical commissioning groups are led by family doctors and commission healthcare for patients.
l The group that covers the Boston area also saw a big fall in cataract operations – some 8.65 per cent – with 190 fewer in 2012 than in 2010.
But hip and knee operations in that area saw big increases.