New surgery initiative saves €2.5m

A new Productive Theatre initiative which minimises “inter-operative time”, or the gap between operations, has ensured savings of €2.5 million nationally since its introduction earlier this year.

HSE National Director, Clinical Strategy and Programmes Dr Barry White said: “The aim is to get more procedures with the same resources and to get more people through the system.” 
The scheme has been in progress for less than a year, but already savings in Cork alone have reached €500,000.

The programme, which has also been piloted at Tallaght, Beaumont, Kilkenny and Letterkenny hospital, is now being rolled out to other hospitals, including the Mater, Sligo and Wexford. A further five hospitals will become involved next year.

Dr White explained that one of the big successes of Britain’s National Health Service was this concept of the productive theatre. If surgical theatres could be used for an extra five hours a week, the annual saving could be several hundreds of thousands of euro.