OPERATING theatres are burning through cash by sitting empty until a bed is available for a patient, a top surgeon warns.
Lord Ara Darzi said staff “scrubbed ready” at 8am could still be waiting “until about midday” at the estimated £1,200-an-hour facilities.
Operating theatres are burning through cash by sitting empty until a bed is available for a patient, Lord Darzi has warned[/caption]
The peer told the Commons Health Select Committee: “It’s expensive, it has about six or seven people working there, and it’s vacant.”
Across England more than 12,000 beds at a time – approximately one in 10 – are blocked by patients who are well enough to go home but have not yet been discharged.
Meanwhile waiting lists have risen to record levels, with 6.3million patients waiting for a combined 7.6m procedures.
Lord Darzi said the back-up also forces people to wait longer in A&E.
He said a lack of physical space is one of the reasons health service productivity has “crashed”.
The surgeon added: “When I was appointed in general cancer surgery, there would have been about five or six of us.
“That’s doubled now but we still have the same number of operating theatres.”
• THOUSANDS of patients die each year as a result of short-staffing and high turnover of doctors and nurses in hospitals, a study suggests.
Experts at the University of Surrey said staff changes and the use of agency workers to plug rota gaps are “detrimental for patient care”.
Operating staff ‘scrubbed ready’ at 8am could still be waiting until about midday’ for a patient to arrive for surgery, Lord Darzi warned[/caption]
