Theatre usage for emergency surgery--use or abuse?

A prospective study was performed to characterise the activity in the designated Emergency Operating Theatre of a fourteen hundred bed teaching hospital. The main conclusion was that a large group of non-emergency but non-elective patients undergo surgery in this facility. The study has shown that in this hospital, despite apparently adequate emergency facilities including a separate orthopaedic trauma theatre, additional theatre time equivalent to six designated theatre sessions would be required to optimise the management of these patients who are often elderly and require major surgery.