NHS Highland was second bottom of the league of Scottish health authorities last year for its performance with day-turn-around targets for 19 surgical procedures such as varicose veins and cataract removal.

NHS Tayside was bottom meeting just 29per cent but NHS Fife was top with more than 80per cent.

The financial watchdog found, although the rate of day surgery continues to rise across Scotland, there remains wide variation in performance among health boards.

But performing more operations as day cases, which involve no overnight stay in hospital, could potentially free up about £8 million a year.

A health authority spokesman said: "NHS Highland is committed to increasing the number of patients who have their surgery on the same day they are admitted, reducing the disruption to their lives and freeing up resources for other patients. The Audit Scotland Report relates to data from 2006/07.  NHS Highland's performance on Same Day Surgery is now measured around the 160 procedures listed in the 2006 British Association of Day Surgery (BADS) publication. Our performance based against BADS for 2006 was 63.7% of procedures were same day surgery, this increased slightly to 64.3% in 2007.

"The Scottish Government ‘HEAT’ target is for us to be delivering 82.5% of BADS procedures as same day surgery by March 2011. NHS Highland already has plans in place for a dedicated Day Surgery Centre at Raigmore Hospital, scheduled for completion in December 2010, this, along with a number of other changes, will help us in achieving that target."

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---