North: Hospital bosses blasted
Hospital consultants and managers were slated today following revelations that operating theatres in the North were used on average for just 21 hours a week despite having the longest waiting lists in the UK.
A powerful all-party committee of MPs said theatres were only scheduled to be used seven hours a day, Monday to Friday, and even then they lay idle for some 40% of the time.
They said the extent to which hospital operating theatres were used and managed efficiently and effectively was key to the overall use of hospital resources in the North.
The MPs expressed alarm at the level of last-minute cancellations of operations and said some were perfectly avoidable.
Other cancellations were “inexcusable”.
The committee highlighted “the persistent taking of annual leave at the last minute by consultants”.
The cancelling of operations resulted in “an unnecessary waste of theatre resources which is totally unacceptable given that Northern Ireland has the worst waiting list performance in the United Kingdom”.
Sanctions should be introduced against hospital staff, when necessary, to cut the last minute cancellations, the report recommended.
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee demanded better and greater use of operating theatres and warned they would be closely monitoring developments.
In a hard-hitting report the committee said more use should be made of theatres during weekdays, in the evenings and at the weekends to reduce waiting lists and waiting times which, it said, were unacceptably high when compared with the rest of the UK.
The Department of Health was urged to review current theatre utilisation patterns at individual hospitals and to negotiate with consultants to work evenings and weekends.
The committee said: “Patients can suffer and their health can deteriorate while waiting for hospital treatment.”
The MPs said: “There is no convincing explanation as to why Northern Ireland, with the highest level of funding in the UK – apart from Scotland – does not get the return on the use of its theatres which is obtainable in other parts of the UK.”
Committee chairman Edward Leigh said: “Relatively high per capita funding and significant idle theatre capacity are hard to reconcile with the worst waiting list and waiting time performance in the United Kingdom.
“The department must address this.”
A major element in improving operating theatre efficiency was the development of an effective theatre services management structure, and the establishment of a theatre policy and guidelines, together with computerised data collection systems.
The MPs said: “It is clear to this committee that there were deficiencies in the management and control of operating theatres in Northern Ireland and that there is considerable scope for improvements and restructuring of operating theatre management in hospitals.”
Many of the reasons given for the last minute cancellation of operations were indicators of poor management, said the report.
With appropriate management, such cancellations were avoidable, it added.
The MPs said they expected the Department of Health, with the co-operation of hospital trusts, to measure and monitor the rate and reasons for last minute cancellations, set targets for their reduction and invoke sanctions on staff where necessary.
Proper theatre management systems mush be introduced throughout the health service to facilitate this, the report added.
