BADS Directory of Procedures 6th Edition

It is three years since the British Association of Day Surgery published the last edition of the BADS Directory of Procedures, with the first edition printed and disseminated 13 years ago. In the past three years many trusts have successfully transformed their day surgery pathways, increasing day surgery rates with the dual benefits of treating more patients safely and efficiently whilst containing costs. This is particularly important as the NHS is subject to increasing financial pressure. Some of the targets proposed in the Directory have been exceeded by trusts and more complex procedures have been brought under the day surgery remit by pioneering units.

Many trusts have started to manage emergency patients in a more ambulatory setting and we have extended our emergency procedure section to reflect this. Emergency surgery may be more difficult to achieve with a zero night stay as patients may need admission for diagnosis and stabilisation but we suggest that once a decision  is made to operate, the pathways be managed on a day surgery basis. Procedures in the emergency section are also shown in the relevant specialty section although the target rates may differ between the two.

BADS has been working with NHSI and the Model Hospital (https://improvement.nhs.uk/resources/model-hospital/) in order to make comparative day surgery data easily available. The Model Hospital can be used to compare your trust with others for procedures in the Directory and top performers can be easily identified. We hope that these top performers can act as inspiration to others and help with the development of pathways and protocols. As a new innovation this benchmarking site, which uses the targets set out in our Directory of Procedures, not only gives an overview of day surgery rates achieved but also data regarding rates of unplanned admissions to hospital following a planned day surgery procedure.