A seventh module in GIRFT’s popular series of practical guides for theatre productivity is now available, along with a supporting guide on optimising surgical throughput with high flow lists.
The latest module focuses on children’s and young people’s surgery, outlining the key principles across many models currently in use that best support effective theatre flows.
It is part of a series of guides designed to support staff to understand how fine tuning each part of the surgical pathway contributes to better use of theatre capacity and helps towards achieving the elective recovery goal.
The CYP guide contains checklists for creating CYP theatre capacity, and detailed information on useful steps to optimising and improving theatre utilisation, including modelling how much CYP theatre capacity is required to meet current demand and using the GIRFT Summary Paediatric Indicator Tables (SPaedIT) dashboard to get an overview of demand, capacity, flow and outcomes.
It also contains sections on:
- Location and development of pathways to support children and young people’s surgery in both hub and day case settings
- Pre-operative assessment
- Booking and scheduling.
- Workforce and training
- Governance
- Examples of initiatives used by trusts to create CYP theatre capacity
Another guide on ‘Delivering High Flow Lists’ aims to help NHS trusts optimise their surgical throughput. The guide has been produced following discussions with 13 trusts and reflects emerging practice in elective surgery management. It presents an overview of current practice and provides information on different approaches that are currently in operation with key learning that will be useful for trusts that are setting up or refining high flow surgical lists.
GIRFT is helping to lead a national theatre programme where all key national workstreams on theatre productivity, efficiency and workforce are seeking to support providers and systems to maximise the effectiveness and throughput of their surgical theatres.
GIRFT’s series of Theatre Productivity Programme practical guides and Delivering High Flow Lists can be found on the GIRFT website:
