Table 4.

Timing and urgency of surgery.

	Emergency	Next day list	Planned list
Total	405/619 (65%)	173/619 (28%)	41/619 (7%)
In hours	109/404 (27%)	141/173 (82%)	36/41 (88%)
Out of hours	295/404 (73%)	32/173 (18%)	5/41 (12%)
Unknown	1	0	0
Normal Hours	250/380 (66%)	173/173 (100%)	41/41 (100%)
Early hours	130/380 (34%)	0	0
Unknown	25	0	0

Urgency of surgery was categorised as emergency, on the next day's list, or on a planned list. A planned list was any list that was after the next day's list. Out of hours operations were defined as those performed at any time on a Saturday or Sunday, those starting after 18:00 or before 08:00 or where no start time was available but the clinician had stated it was an out of hours operation. In hours operations were those performed Monday to Friday starting between 08:00 and 18:00 or when no start time was available but the clinician stated it was performed in hours. Early hours operations were defined as operations starting after 23:00 and prior to 07:00 on any day of the week. Normal hours were any operations not performed in the ‘early hours’ times. Urgency of operation was unknown in two cases. Planned operations could also be out of hours if they were performed during the day at weekends.