Day surgery rate improves but better performance could free up resources

Ten years after the first review of day surgery in Scotland, Audit Scotland has found that the rate of day surgery continues to rise but there remains wide variation in performance among health boards. Performing more operations as day cases, which involve no overnight stay in hospital, could potentially free up about £8 million a year.

An Audit Scotland report published today, Day surgery in Scotland – reviewing progress, says the health service is continuing to improve in this area and overall is meeting the national targets in more than half of the 19 more common day surgery procedures covered in its review. These procedures include circumcision, cataract removal and hernia repair.

The NHS in Scotland has made steady progress in carrying out more surgical procedures as day surgery since targets were first introduced in the 1990s. But more operations could still be carried out in this way, potentially freeing up about £8 million a year. Scotland continues to have lower rates of day surgery than England which indicates there is still opportunity to improve performance further.

Robert Black, the Auditor General for Scotland, said: ‘It’s long 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 efficient use of NHS resources by reducing waiting times and freeing up hospital beds.’

The report says there is considerable variation among NHS boards in the percentage of operations carried out as day surgery. This is not explained by differences in location or patients’ circumstances. There is also wide variation within individual boards in their day surgery performance for different types of operations.