Cancellation of Elective Surgical Cases in a Nigerian Teaching Hospital: Frequency, Reasons and Possible Solutions.

Abstract

Introduction: Dwindling economic resources and reduced manpower in the health sector requires
efficient utilization of the available resources. Day of surgery cancellation has far reaching consequences on the patients and the theatre staff involved. Full utilization of the theatre space should be pursued. Methods: We prospectively studied all elective cases that were booked from January 2016 through March 2017 in Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki. Cancellation is said to have occurred when the planned surgery did not take place on the proposed day of surgery. Results: During the15-month period, a total of 1296 elective surgeries were booked. Out of this, 118 (9.1%) cases were cancelled. Patient-related factor was the most common reason (47.4%) followed in descending order by surgeon- related factor (31.4%), hospital- related factor (16.1%), and anaesthesia-related factor (5.1%). Lack of funds was the most common patient related reason for cancellation. Majority of the cancelled cases were general surgical cases (33.9%) followed by orthopaedics (27.1%), urology (10.2%), Paediatric surgery (10.2%), ENT (5.9%), Plastic surgery (5.1%), maxillofacial (4.2%) Cardiothoracic (3.4 %|). Conclusion: The cancellation rate in this study is high. The reasons for these cancellations are preventable. To ensure effective utilization of the theatre, efforts should be made to tackle these reasons.