Introduction: Planned acute lists have an important role in facilitating the planning of the acute theatre work load and reducing the burden on acute list and after hours operating.
Aim: To review the efficiency of our planned acute lists.
Method: Data collected over period November 2019 to March 2020 inclusive. Information collected included; briefing time, reasons for delayed starts, lists start and finishing times, length of operations, cases per list and reasons for case cancellation.
Results: A total of 26 forms were filled out for 35 planned acute lists (75%). A large number of planned acutes had delayed start times (54%). Seventeen percent of cases were cancelled on the day of surgery. Only half (49%) of cases were booked for the correct time with 35% of lists finishing early.
Conclusion: Planned acute lists have the potential to be a valuable resource. This audit has highlighted key areas where we are underperforming resulting in sub-optimal utilisation of our planned acute theatre lists.