Did you know it costs about £1,200 an hour to run one of our theatres?

 

We have 17 theatres at the Trust and the running costs are obviously huge so, in these challenging times, it is vital we get the best use out of them for our patients. We want to be SUPER:

 

S tarting on time

U sing all available theatres

P atient flow and experience

E ffective turnaround

R ecovery

 

With this in mind, we are staging a Theatres Action Week from Monday October 5 to Friday October 9 to have a close look at the way our theatres currently run and how we can ensure we get the best, safe care for our patients and at the same time we get the maximum use from our theatres.

 

At the end of the week we want to know what works well and, where it doesn't, where we can improve through quick, simple change and where larger scale transformation is needed.

 

We shall be looking at the whole theatres pathway system including:

* patients on wards needing to go to theatres

* patients on admission units waiting to go to theatres

* patients in pre-assessment

* patients coming through Emergency Departments and how we prioritise trauma patients

We want to be able to pinpoint areas where there are currently delays which means sometimes we are having to work longer hours to complete the list or cancel operations at short notice.

 

As back-up and for support we'll have bronze, silver and gold commands (as we did for our previous Perfect Week) so there is an escalation process in place to tackle any arising issues instantly to ensure the lists run as smoothly as possible.

 

Trusts in other areas of the country have already run similar weeks and learning has included looking into improvements for patients waiting a long time on the day of their surgery, as well as how their theatre system can be better used to audit and measure timings for all surgical procedures.

 

Lead Kathryn Aldous, said: "With everyone pulling together this should be a defining week for theatres and the learning from it should be the start of a new era." The week is being backed by the Theatres Productivity Board which meets every Wednesday at 7am to assess our performance and is made up of key clinicians and managers.

 

We are holding briefings next week for colleagues to find out more and share their ideas:

 

Tuesday 1 September 12.30 to 13.30 - Board Room, CRH

Wednesday 2 September 12.30 to 13.30 - Discussion Room 3, HRI

Thursday 3 September 12.30 to 13.30 - Large Training Room, CRH

Friday 4 September 12.30 to 13.30 - Discussion Room 3, HRI