Surgical manpower, beds and output in the NHS: 1967-1977

The availability and use of surgical manpower and beds and certain measures of surgical workload were examined in the NHS in England and Wales from 1967 to 1977 using routine health statistics. Amongst the surgical specialties, there was no consistent relationship between changes in levels of manpower and beds and operating output. For example, ENT surgery and cardiothoracic surgery had more staff and fewer beds in 1977 than in 1967, but operating output in ENT surgery decreased by 18 per cent and in cardiothoracic surgery increased by 28 per cent. Although the efficiency of bed use may have improved (average length of stay was 10.5 days in 1967 and 8.8 days in 1977), the overall use of available beds in most specialties may have decreased. The number of operations performed in each specialty per consultant surgeon was less in 1977 than 1967 except for traumatic and orthopaedic surgery. Although interpretations of routine health statistics are rarely conclusive, the results of this study suggest the possibility of a less than optimum use in 1977 compared to 1967 of surgical beds and surgeons' operating potential which might be due to lack of other resources such as usable theatre time.