Table 4. Comparison of the number of visits and referral before clearing patients for both unmatched and matched cohorts analyzed using Fisher’s exact test.

PAEC - preanaesthesia evaluation clinic, ASA-PS - the American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status class, NICE - the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, N - total number. Group A represents routine investigation, and group B represents surgery and patient specific investigation.

PAEC visit and referral (numbers)		All patients			ASA-PS matched			NICE matched
	Gr A [N=58]	Gr B [N=56]	Two-sided p	Gr A [N=39]	Gr B [N=39]	Two-sided p	Gr A [N=39]	Gr B [N=39]	Two-sided p
Visits for clearance
1-visits	49(84.48)	51(91.07)	0.394	31 (79.5)	35(89.7)	0.347	29(74.4)	35(89.7)	0.138
2-visits	09(15.51)	04(7.14)	0.238	08 (20.5)	03 (7.7)	0.191	10(25.6)	03(7.7)	0.065
4-visits	0	01(1.78)	0.491	0	01 (2.6)	0.491	0	01(2.6)	0.491
Referrals
Total	06 (10.3)	08 (14.3)	0.404	04 (10.3)	06(15.4)	0.504	05(12.8)	06(15.4)	0.748
Median (range)	0 (0-1)	0 (0-2)		0 (0-1)	0(0-1)		0(0-1)	0(0-1)