No-show patients hit day surgery figures

14 Jul 05
The rise in emergency admissions and the problem of patients who cancel their operations have contributed to the under-use of day surgery facilities, the NHS Confederation claimed this week.

15 July 2005

The rise in emergency admissions and the problem of patients who cancel their operations have contributed to the under-use of day surgery facilities, the NHS Confederation claimed this week.

The claim followed a report from the Healthcare Commission, which found that 45% of theatre time allocated for day procedures in England was not being used.

On average, day surgery theatres were being used only 16 hours a week and taking up the remaining time would allow an extra 74,000 patients to be treated as day cases every year.

At the NHS Confederation conference last month, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt warned trusts that the unprecedented increases in health funding would not continue beyond 2008 and urged them to unearth a 'potential pot of gold' through efficiency savings. The commission said an increase in the number of day-case procedures would contribute to such savings.

Commission chief executive Anna Walker said: 'Efficiency and good patient care go hand in hand. When operations are cancelled or when patients stay overnight for something that could be done in a day, patients are inconvenienced and resources are wasted.'

The study found that 10% of day surgery units cancelled more than a third of their theatre sessions, while many patients had their operations postponed at short notice.

'Cancelled operations are often due to unplanned emergency operations,' said Gill Morgan, the confederation's chief executive.

Trusts were trying to tackle this problem by separating non-emergency and emergency operations and opening dedicated day surgery units. This often required significant investment.

'The number of patients who fail to show up is still an issue and so continued government investment in the Choose and Book programme, which enables patients to choose a date and time for their day surgery, will enable us to reduce this problem,' she added.

The report said patients' experience of day surgery had improved over the past four years. It added that the total number of day surgery admissions for 25 common procedures had increased by 12% over this period.

However, cataract operations accounted for the bulk of this rise.

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