Day surgery ‘could save millions’
Increased use of promised time surgery involving no last night stay in hospital could save 8m a year, according to some authoritative report.
Audit Scotland said day surgery rates had continued to improve but remained lower than in England and there was a wide variation between freedom from disease boards.
NHS Fife achieved more than 80% of the relevant targets time NHS Tayside achieved less than 30%.
The Scottish Government said it was on track to meet targets.
The report uttered national targets had been met in more than half of 19 more common procedures.
These included circumcision, cataract removal and hernia repair.
It in like manner noted that the NHS in Scotland had made “steady progress in carrying out more surgical procedures as day surgery since targets were first introduced in the 1990s”.
But it said more operations could still be carried out in this way.
Robert Black, the Auditor General for Scotland, said: “It’s tedious been recognised that day surgery benefits patients through promoting a speedy recovery and minimising the disruption that an overnight stay in hospital can have on people’s lives.
“It also promotes a more skilful use of NHS resources by reducing tarrying times and freeing up hospital beds.”
The report said there was considerable variation among NHS the stage in the percentage of operations carried out as day surgery, that could not be explained by differences in location or patients’ condition.
There was also a wide variation inside individual the stage in their day surgery performance for many types of operations.
It recommended that NHS boards should mentor the levels of same-day surgery the two by hospital and speciality and take appropriate action where rates were cheaply.
It also said the NHS needed to improve recording of outpatient procedures.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: “Increasing day surgery rates are now treated as a key part of meeting the modern waiting time mark of 18 weeks by 2011.
“Each board will be expected to agree meliorating milestones which they will have being expected to achieve by the target begin. We expect clinicians to be completely involved and put in place necessary training and facilities.”
Commenting on the report, the Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Ross Finnie MSP called for an urgent scrutiny to discover why there was such a variation between health boards.
Mr Finnie said: “It’s important that any local barriers to same-day surgery are identified and tackled. This give by will not only benefit patients, nevertheless will ensure the most efficient use of NHS money.”
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