“I’ve worked in the Trust for 20 years and never been in a theatre and never realised all the work involved every day.”

This was just one of many positive comments from Theatres Action Week  (in October). Part of the week involved opening them up to colleagues and membership councillors who have never been inside or seen the work involved in setting up our theatres.  

And it was real-eyeopener as the quote above suggests. 

Whilst 70% of actions required were resolved in the week itself there is more work to be done to resolve issues which are often repeated so that both staff and patients see real improvement to the patient journey through surgery.  This will need everyone who took part to get involved.

The next steps have started and include feedback and engagement with theatre staff and the observers to identify the top 5 actions  which are most important to theatres and their patients.

As these are identified,  working groups involving different groups of staff from within and supporting theatres are being put in place to work together on implementing improvements supported by the Surgical Division and the Trust. 

A Surgical Pre-Operative Assessment work stream has been running for several weeks now working together to ensure patients are pre-assessed in a timely manner and their information is where it needs to be when the patient arrives for surgery. This work stream is also developing a new way of delivering the service to further improve the patient experience.

The Theatre Productivity Group continues to meet fortnightly to support and drive forward ideas put forward for development and implementation. 

If you have previously been involved and would like to continue or if you would like to find out how you can get involved in the ongoing initiatives around Operating Services then please contact Kathryn Aldous General Manager on HRI 2265 or Maggie Metcalfe Matron on CRH.