Incidence and Factors Associated with Cancellation of Elective Surgical Operations in Intermediate Hospital Oshakati, Namibia

Introduction: An elective surgical case cancellation refers to any planned operation that was not performed on the scheduled day. Cancellation of elective surgeries has a negative impact on health systems, especially in resource challenged countries. This study determined frequency and factors associated with cancellation of elective surgical operation in Intermediate Hospital, Oshakati. Methodology: A prospective observational cohort study design was employed, and all patients scheduled to undergo elective surgeries from September to November 2023 were recruited. A proforma was used to extract data from patient’s record, daily scheduled operation lists and theatre surgery register. The data collected were analysed using SPSS for windows (IBM Corp. Released 2013. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 28.0. IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA). The results were presented as frequencies and percentages in tables and chat. Results: During the study period, 1599 elective surgeries were booked, of which 336 cases (21%) were cancelled on the day of surgery. Of the total cancelled cases, 186 (55.4%) were female and 150 (44.6%) were males patients. Vascular surgery (45.8%) had the highest proportion of cancellations while Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) department had the least (9.4%). The most common factors why surgeries were cancelled were time constraints (21.4%) and lack of theatre space (15.5%). Conclusion: The overall cancellation incidence was found to be higher than the internationally recommended rate of less than 5%. Our 21% rate was found higher than that of most developed countries but lower than some African countries. Factors related to Human and equipment limitations constituted the most common category of reasons for cancellations.