The main reason for cancellation was surgeon’s unavailability

[28]. Changing the operating theatre policy, as demonstrated in this article, allows surgeons to designate and inform the patient more accurately the time of his/her operation. However, it did not necessarily reduce the waiting times to surgery. We feel that provision of a second emergency theatre at all times would be an effective solution to this problem. Patients would be operated upon promptly. This would reduce waiting Talazoparib research buy times to surgery and facilitate quicker discharges from hospital, thereby increasing turnover. This would also be satisfactory for the patients; bed management for the elective patients, thereby increasing volumes of elective work load and shortening waiting list times. The increased costs involved in running the second additional theatres should be balanced against the cost of reduced length of hospital stay. Taking an example from emergency laparoscopic cholecystectomy versus elective cholecystectomy after conservative management, the increased immediate operative cost is neutralized by the reduced length of stay and quicker return to work [29]. More detailed cost – benefit analysis involving multiple hospitals and larger number of patients would be required to lend creditable evidence to support this belief. Acknowledgements We thank all

the medical and nursing staff of the wards and theatres of the surgical many services for taking care of patients and helping in data collection. We thank Mr Ajit Abraham & Mr Mike Walsh, Consultant Surgeons TGF-beta cancer for spearheading the theatre change programme and Ms Ceri Cranston, Theatre Manager for implementing the changes with rigor. References 1. Wyatt MG, Houghton PW, Brodribb AJ: Theatre delay for emergency general surgical patients: a cause for concern? Ann R Coll Surg Engl 1990,72(4):236–8.PubMed 2. American College of Surgeons Trauma Program [http://​www.​facs.​org/​trauma] 3. Bhattacharyya T, et al.:

The value of the dedicated orthopaedic trauma operating room. J Trauma 2006,60(6):1336–40. discussion 1340–1CrossRefPubMed 4. The Report of the National Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Deaths 1990 NCEPOD, London; 1992. 5. Sweetnam DI, Williams JR, Britton DC: An audit of the effect of a 24-hour emergency operating theatre in a district general hospital. Ann R Coll Surg Engl 1994,76(2 Suppl):56–8.PubMed 6. Lovett BE, Katchburian MV: Emergency surgery: half a day does make a difference. Ann R Coll Surg Engl 1999,81(1):62–4.PubMed 7. Calder FR, Jadhav V, Hale JE: The effect of a dedicated emergency theatre facility on emergency operating patterns. J R Coll Surg Edinb 1998,43(1):17–9.PubMed 8. Barlow AP, et al.: An emergency daytime theatre list: utilisation and impact on clinical practice. Ann R Coll Surg Engl 1993,75(6):441–4.PubMed 9. Scriven MW, et al.