Great Western Hospital is beating the national target for waiting times before scheduled operations. Up to the end of September, 95.5 per cent of elective patients were being treated within eighteen weeks – the national target is ninety per cent.
However, figures released to the Wiltshire Involvement Network (WIN), show how patients failing to turn up lead to costly cancellations of scheduled operations.
During September GWH prepared for 1,372 scheduled operations. Only 108 of those had to be cancelled on the day.
The main reason for those cancellations was patients failing to attend their appointments – accounting for nearly one third of the cancellations. The second most common cause for cancellations was patients who had become unfit for anaesthetic through a cold or chest infection.
During that month ten operations were cancelled due to lack of theatre time.
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