The public's perspective on the amount of time surgeons spend operating

As waiting lists for elective surgery grow, there seems to be a disconnect between the public's expectations on the amount of time surgeons spend operating compared with reality. On average, a surgeon in the NHS spends one day a week performing elective surgery. We aimed to investigate the public's perception on the amount of time surgeons spend performing elective surgery and what they would desire.

Members of the public in the UK were approached randomly either on-line or in-person to complete an anonymised 6-question survey. The questionnaire included demographic details, surgical history, occupational experience in the healthcare sector, the number of days a week they believe and wish for surgeons to be performing elective surgery.

252 members of the public responded to the survey (150 females, 102 males). 38.5% have experience working in the healthcare sector and 58.5% have had surgery in the past. 83.7% believe surgeons spend at least 3 days a week performing elective surgery [3-4 days (43.2%), 5-7 days (40.5%)]. 45.7% of respondents want their surgeon to operate between 5 and 7 days per week.

The public appears to overestimate the amount of time that surgeons spend performing elective surgery and have unrealistic expectations of how much they want their surgeons to operate.