David Bunting

Having taken up the position of JODS Editor in January, it is with great pleasure that I introduce the first edition of JODS in 2018.

The NHS has been put under intense strain recently as a result of winter pressures with day-surgery units being used for inpatients and many operations cancelled. Financial austerity has led to Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) taking matters into their own hands and introducing minimum waiting times and NHS England has removed penalties for patients waiting over 52 weeks for treatment. The inevitable increase in waiting times means that it has never been more critical to recognise the importance of well-managed, dedicated day-surgery units in mitigating these problems by efficiently treating the 75% surgical patients treated as day-cases in the UK.

BADS is committed to delivering a high quality Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) and undertook a membership survey to find what our members value most in the yearly conference. See the full results published in this edition of JODS. I am pleased to be able to report that as a result of feedback, we are continuing to host a two-day meeting, with no increase in the conference fee and a networking dinner included in the price for this year’s meeting in Sheffield. Preparations for the meeting are well under way and please be reminded that abstract submission and registration are open via the BADS website. Please book your study leave now if you haven’t done so already and I look forward to receiving your abstract submissions prior to the deadline on Friday 6^th April. After many years holding meetings outside the capital, I am very excited to be able to announce that the 2019 ASM will be held in London. This will be well-timed to commemorate the association’s 30^th annual meeting and promises to deliver a full programme of expert speakers as well as a chance to network during the evening social event.

This edition’s scientific papers include an audit of patients with a history of chronic pain being managed successfully through a day surgery pathway; a review on overcoming the problem of patients who do not have an overnight carer, a report on outcomes and satisfaction with semi-elective day case hand trauma surgery and a randomised controlled trial studying the efficacy and recovery profile of low doses of hyperbaric bupivacaine for spinal anaesthesia.

The journal has gone through significant change in recent months, having moved over from a printed journal to web-based and app-based formats. Many readers are now accessing their journal subscriptions through these platforms and it was felt that the time had come for JODS to embrace the available technology. The Editorial team is always trying to improve the service it provides to BADS members and JODS readers and we are currently working on making published articles available to download directly in PDF format.

Finally, I would like to thank Tim Rowlands as past-Editor for his hard work over the past three years. He has endeavoured to maintain the high standard of articles published in the journal, whilst keeping the subject content topical and relevant to day-case surgery. He has also efficiently steered the journal through recent changes and importantly this has all been achieved without charging authors an article processing fee, putting JODS in a decreasing minority of journals that are able to publish without charge to individual authors. I hope you enjoy this edition of JODS. As always, feedback on the content and letters to the Editor are gratefully received.

David Bunting

Editor