FP8.12 - Theatre time utilisation in General Surgery at a district hospital in NHS

Abstract Aim To understand the operation theatre time utilisation in the Department of General Surgery at a busy district NHS hospital. The time spent in each step of surgery and operating list at large and understand the patterns of cancellations and its’ predictors. Method Retrospective study of all elective general surgical patients from 1 Dec 2021 to 15 May 2022. Emergency cases were excluded and statistics were performed on Statsdirect3. Results Total surgeries performed were 182 with 153 true and 41 false cancellations. Mean surgical time was 84.5 minutes (mean 73min) for all general surgical cases. Lap cholecystectomies had a mean time of 92.3mins, upper GI surgeries took 178.6mins (mean) EUA and other procedures was 30.86mins, inguinal hernia 77.2mins, umbilical hernia 68.5mins. Mean anaesthesia time was 33 mins (median 31mins). Theatre time utilised was 56.45%, anaesthesia time utilised was 15.85%, surgery time utilised was 40.60% and non-clinical time was 43.55%. Mean delay in sending for first patient was 31.58mins (median 29min). Delay in calling for first patient is statistically significant (p=0.00015) for cancellation for the last patient in the list. Mean gap in between 2 consecutive cases was 35.74mins (median 22min). Conclusion Delay in sending for the patient will lead to cancellation of the last patient on the list which is proven statistically. We utilised 82.19% of the total surgery days and cancelled 17.81% days. Non clinical time comprised of 43.55%.