High on the agenda of Future Surgery 2022 was the significant challenge around recovering elective surgery, in the wake of the pandemic. Among the hot topics included: staff retention and recruitment, the need for more day case surgery, new ways of working, and the recovery of training. Louise Frampton reports.
At Future Surgery 2022, the recovery of elective services was among the most talked about challenges for surgical teams. With waiting lists now reaching over 7 million, surgical services are under extreme pressures to tackle the backlog, while patients are having to wait in pain for life changing surgery. Theatre teams have risen to the challenge and have made some progress on tackling the longest waits, but the problem is going to be with us for some time
With this in mind, the event brought together a panel of experts to discuss the way forward and the hurdles that will need to be overcome. Chairing the debate, Professor Neil Mortensen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, was joined by: Stella Vig, National Clinical Director for Elective Care; Dawn Stott, chief executive of the Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP); Duncan Summerton, consultant urological surgeon, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust; Rowan Parks, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; and Prof. John Skinner, consultant orthopaedic surgeon, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust.
“It feels like an unsolvable problem. However, when you break it down, there are chinks of greatness,” commented Stella Vig. She pointed out that significant progress has been made in reducing the longest waits (of 18 months and two years), but she emphasised that reducing the wait in children’s surgery is particularly important.
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