Stamatios Karavolos, Consultant Gynaecologist, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, BADS Council Member

Thursday 19^th of November 2020 saw the first joint British Association of Day Surgery (BADS) and Healthcare Conferences UK (HCUK) one-day conference titled “Developing a Daycase Gynaecology Surgery Service”. The conference provided a unique opportunity to virtually meet with pears from the across the UK that came together on a virtual platform, for what promised to be an educational and thought-provoking conference, very topical in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The conference was chaired by BADS council members Dr Mary Stocker, Consultant Anaesthetist, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, Past BADS President and Dr Stamatios Karavolos, Consultant Gynaecologist, Salford Royal Hospital, Manchester.  This conference heard the experiences of teams from different Trusts in the UK that have successfully implemented their day case pathways, the key to their success and ways to overcome any obstacles.

Dr Stocker, who chaired the morning session, introduced the newly published BADS ‘Day Case Gynaecology Surgery’ handbook, the latest addition to a series of handbooks published by BADS. This is now available to purchase from the BADS website.

The first talk was delivered by Dr Stocker, who presented on key aspects of the day case pathway and ways to implement it. Quality improvement was discussed, as well as how to measure outcomes and success. She also touched on national figures for day case gynaecology procedures as highlighted in the 2020 Getting it Right the First Time (GIRFT) national programme that addresses national variation on day case services. Her talk was followed by two presentations on specific procedures done as day case. Mr Jonathan Hindley and Mr Naru Narayanan, Consultant Gynaecologists at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, shared their experience with day case laparoscopic hysterectomy and day case vaginal prolapse surgery, respectively. Both speakers discussed key aspects of patient selection and surgery techniques that help make day surgery successful. The morning session concluded with a talk from Sister Alex Alen, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, who elaborated on the practicalities and key aspects of the pre-operative assessment that are important for a successful day surgery pathway.   

The afternoon session started with a talk from Dr Peter Scott, Consultant Gynaecologist at the University Hospital of Plymouth, with title: ‘Taking a step further to moving procedures down the intensity gradient into the outpatient clinic’. Dr Scott discussed his experience with moving an number of procedures to the outpatient setting. He established a successful outpatient hysteroscopy/menstrual disorders clinic performing procedures such as endometrial ablation and manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) in the outpatient setting. He discussed the challenges he faced in setting up this clinic and ways to overcome them. Following this Dr Nicola Ramsaw, senior trainee at Northumbria Healthcare Trust, shared her experiences of running a day Case gynaecology service at Northumbria, one of the leading day case surgery units in the country that have achieved up to 92% day case total laparoscopic hysterectomy rates. Dr Ramsaw outlined the patient pathway and general principles for day case surgery pathway that have enabled her unit to achieve these impressive results. This was followed by Dr Theresa Hinde, Consultant Anaesthetist at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust and BADS honorary secretary, who talked on her experience in developing an emergency ambulatory gynaecology day case pathway and the importance of a collaborative approach with managers and clinicians from other specialties in order to successfully implement this. The conference concluded with a talk from Dr Stocker who summarised ways improve day surgery gynaecology services using the model hospital tool for auditing and monitoring outcomes.

A big thank you to all the speakers, delegates and organisers who made the first day case gynaecology conference so successful. The next day case gynaecology conference is due to take place virtually on 20th May 2021.