Dave Bunting

This edition of JODS follows the very successful Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) held in June at the Sheffield City Hall. As promised all abstracts presented whether in poster or oral format are published in this edition of the Journal and are citable as peer-reviewed abstract publications. Feedback from the meeting was very positive, the overall programme content was rated as good or excellent by 93% attendees, overall timetabling was rated as good/excellent in 95% and the venue was rated as good/excellent in 94%. Preparations are well underway for next year’s ASM, which is to be held at the Royal Society of Medicine in London.

Since introduction of the application and web-based platforms last year, The Journal of One-Day Surgery is continually striving to improve the service it provides to its subscribers, to increase the accessibility of articles and to enhance the functionality of its electronic platforms. This month brings a new and important development whereby individual articles are available to view and download in PDF format, directly from the JODS app and JODS section of the BADS website.

This edition of JODS features full manuscript publications from work presented at the ASM this year. They include an audit of operation note documentation comparing practice with guidelines issued by the Royal College of Surgeons; a report of a single unit’s experience in ureteroscopy and lasertripsy for renal stone management; a service evaluation of major ear surgery performed as a day surgery and a study on the factors associated with successful day case tonsillectomy.

NHS England’s monthly performance statistics have this month shown that the number of patients waiting over a year for planned treatment has reached the highest level in over 6 years. Planning guidance issued by NHS England suggests that the number of patients waiting more than 52 months for treatment should be halved by next year and eliminated where possible, however, it seems unlikely that this will be achievable in many trusts. Maintaining highly productive day-surgery units is vitally important in helping to achieve these targets by reducing elective waiting times, especially as the majority of patients waiting over a year will be suitable for day surgery procedures.