The 75-year-old monarch has postponed his public engagements to allow for a period of recuperation, but he is keen to get back to work as soon as possible.
Buckingham Palace officials have played down the possibility that the procedure would leave Charles out of action for long enough to draft in other members of the royal family to fulfil his duties as head of state.
If the monarch is not fit enough to carry out crucial state functions, such as giving royal assent to bills passing through Parliament or appointing High Court judges, two counsellors of state are required to act together in a quorum to carry out the duties. His eldest son William, Prince of Wales, is a counsellor of state, while Charles’s youngest brother, the Duke of Edinburgh and his sister, the Princess Royal, were added to the list recently.
The Duke of Sussex and the Duke of York remain counsellors despite having both stepped down from official royal duties.
However, a Palace source said the King was expected to be “back reading and signing papers” from his daily red box shortly after the procedure, the date of which is unknown.
The King had been due to meet foreign dignitaries and cabinet members in Scotland yesterday, but those meetings were cancelled on medical grounds.
The announcement Charles was set for a hospital operation was made on the same day it was revealed his daughter-in-law the Princess of Wales remains in hospital having undergone abdominal surgery.
It is highly unusual for medical updates to be released and especially for two of the most senior members of the Royal Family within 90 minutes of each other.
