Sam Monaghan, Key Account Manager South East, Mölnlycke ORS, says that improving efficiency in cardiac surgery is not just a technical fix. It is a workforce fix, a patient safety fix, and a system capacity fix.
It is not news that today’s healthcare systems are under mounting pressure, balancing increasingly complex clinical demands with relentless financial constraints, all while facing a growing need for specialist services. Within this context, the delivery of cardiac care – already complex and resource intensive – requires new approaches that support both clinical outcomes and operational sustainability.
The burden of cardiovascular disease in the UK is reaching unprecedented levels, making it a significant public health concern. In early 2024, deaths from heart disease in under-75s rose to their highest point in over a decade with an average of 750 lives lost each week.1 These stark figures were spotlighted by the Darzi review, which noted that the progress made on heart disease and other circulatory diseases in the last 50 years is beginning to reverse.2
These numbers are more than statistics, they represent lives lost, families affected, and services under strain. And they signal the need for a new kind of response, one that goes beyond clinical excellence and that ensures innovative solutions in how care is delivered, resourced, and sustained.
Efficiency: Empowering surgical teams, enhancing surgical care
The delivery of modern healthcare is inherently complex, and nowhere is this more apparent than in surgical services. The operating theatre is a high-stakes environment where time, precision, and teamwork are crucial. That is why efficiency in surgery goes far beyond cost; it encompasses patient safety, staff wellbeing, and has a major knock-on effect to the overall capacity of our health systems. In this context, efficiency means more than just doing things faster.
It is about creating the conditions that allow care to be delivered safely and consistently. That can mean earlier interventions to avoid more invasive treatments down the line. It can also mean reducing variability in surgical prep through standardised processes, or freeing up valuable theatre time by streamlining the setup and breakdown of procedures.
Evidence has shown that small changes to theatre workflows – such as the introduction of custom surgical trays – can lead to significant improvements. In one analysis of over 2,700 procedures, setup and clean-up times were reduced by 40% with the use of pre-configured packs.3
But it's not just the statistic that is important. The time saved creates space for deeper pre-operative planning, more time for staff recovery, and the potential for improved communication between patient and clinical team. It frees up capacity for training, research, and continuous improvement. It can mean cardiac surgical teams require less time on component selection, as it is already optimised beforehand. These changes can also boost productivity during the procedure, as well as create less waste in the operating room, reducing the clear-up time post operation.
Improving efficiency in cardiac surgery is not just a technical fix. It is a workforce fix, a patient safety fix, and a system capacity fix. These changes also lay the groundwork for more sustainable care delivery by reducing duplication, simplifying logistics, and improving consistency.
Cost-effectiveness: Supporting smarter spending in cardiac care
With financial pressures mounting across the NHS, the concept of cost-effectiveness is often misunderstood as a call to cut spending. In reality, it’s about getting more value from the resources we already have, ensuring that investments in staff, equipment, and systems translate into meaningful improvements in care.
In cardiac services, resource constraints often show up in delays, equipment mismatches, or variability in supply. These operational inefficiencies are costly, not just in financial terms but in missed opportunities for patient care.
Ensuring clinical teams have what they need – when they need it – reduces unnecessary variation and allows more time to focus on the patient. When surgical equipment such as procedure trays are adapted into clinical need and reviewed regularly, they can help reduce waste, limit the use of redundant components, and improve alignment with wider hospital systems.
Equally important is the ongoing support around these tools. Teams need the ability to adjust, iterate, and refine their processes over time. A cost-effective approach to cardiac care is one that builds in flexibility, supports continuous improvement, and enables clinical teams to operate at their full potential without unnecessary burden.
Sustainability: Building resilience in a rapidly evolving landscape
Sustainability in healthcare has many dimensions beyond environmental impact; sustainability of workforce models, clinical pathways, and partnerships that, by the very nature of healthcare delivery, are constantly evolving.
Surgical care, especially in acute specialities like cardiology, require long-term solutions rather than one-off improvements. It demands iterative change; refining tools, aligning with evolving pathways, and responding to shifts in clinical need. This is not a linear process, but an ongoing cycle of feedback, improvement, and collaboration.
Environmental considerations also remain important. Consolidated procedure packs, for instance, can reduce packaging waste and transport-related emissions. Reducing the inclusion of rarely used items in surgical trays lowers material waste and aligns with broader sustainability goals, such as those outlined in the NHS Net Zero strategy.
True sustainability depends on reducing system strain, by making care more predictable, reducing unnecessary duplication, and ensuring that staff are not overstretched by inefficiencies in the tools and systems they use every day. Ongoing collaboration and responsiveness to evolving clinical contexts are key to creating sustainable change.
Looking ahead: Everyday excellence, long-term impact
The upward trend in incidence of cardiac conditions is a stark reminder of the work that still needs to be done in cardiac care. While national policies and public health strategies remain vital, we must not underestimate the power of change at the frontline of healthcare delivery; these are what have the most direct impact on both healthcare professionals and patients. When small process improvements are adopted widely and consistently, their collective impact can be transformative.
Consistently applied, small changes to process, tools, and team support can lead to more efficient, resilient, and patient-centred care. The future of cardiac care may not rely solely on major breakthroughs, but on everyday excellence and continuous improvement.
Mölnlycke is proud to bring its legacy of innovation to this critical challenge, empowering teams to do more, sustainably. Our expansion into cardiac care is about helping our partners deliver care that is more efficient, cost-effective, and more sustainable. By embedding operational excellence into the everyday processes of cardiac care, we can build a system that is not only clinically strong, but also sustainable, adaptable, and ready to meet the challenges ahead.
References
[1] British Heart Foundation (2024) Early heart disease deaths rise to 14-year high. Available from: https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/news-from-the-bhf/news-archive/2024/january/early-heart-disease-deaths-rise-to-14-year-high#:~:text=Since%202020%2C%20the%20premature%20death,rate%20of%20improvement%20since%202012. Accessed 11/04/2025
[2] British Heart Foundation (2024) Lord Darzi review highlights ‘critical condition’ of NHS and cardiovascular services. Available from: https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/news-from-the-bhf/news-archive/2024/september/lord-darzi-review-highlights
[3] Mölnlycke. A multinational case study to evaluate and quantify timesaving by using custom procedure trays for operating room efficiency. Available from: https://www.molnlycke.co.uk/SysSiteAssets/master-and-local-markets/documents/uk/surgical-documents/procedure-trays/ortho/expert-point-of-view-custom-procedure-trays-save-time-greiling-poster.pdf
