Abstract
A prospective study of all weekday emergency surgery performed in a district general hospital over an 18-month period was undertaken to assess the impact of a fully staffed, daytime operating theatre for emergency surgery on night-time operating and on consultant supervision of trainees. In the 12 months following the introduction of the emergency list there was a 46% reduction in the number of general surgical operations performed after midnight compared with the preceding 6 months. Despite the increase in daytime operating the degree of consultant participation was unchanged, with the majority of emergency procedures being performed by unsupervised junior surgeons and anaesthetists. Although the emergency theatre was available to all specialties and was used for 'scheduled' and occasional 'elective' cases when there were no emergencies, only 37% of total theatre time was used. Without a change in consultant workload and practice which permits their increased involvement in emergency surgery, a dedicated daytime emergency theatre may be a costly measure which fails to fulfil all CEPOD recommendations.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Collins C. Recommended values for use in surgical audit and surgical workload analysis. Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1991 Sep;73(5 Suppl):94–94. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Flook D. J., Crumplin M. K. The efficiency of management of emergency surgery in a district general hospital--a prospective study. Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1990 Jan;72(1):27–31. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Jones S. M., Collins C. D. Caseload or workload? Scoring complexity of operative procedures as a means of analysing workload. BMJ. 1990 Aug 11;301(6747):324–325. doi: 10.1136/bmj.301.6747.324. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- McKee M., Priest P., Ginzler M., Black N. Which general surgical operations must be done at night? Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1991 Sep;73(5):295–302. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Wyatt M. G., Houghton P. W., Brodribb A. J. Theatre delay for emergency general surgical patients: a cause for concern? Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1990 Jul;72(4):236–238. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]