Wilkinson DJ

Language: English
References: 2
Page: 212-214
PDF size: 91.84 Kb.

Text Extraction

Introduction

Day stay surgery has now become the accepted normal way of surgical and anaesthetic practice for a huge proportion of elective procedures. This move from inpatient care to day stay has been predominantly driven by financial considerations as it is obviously much cheaper to send patients home rather than care for them in a hospital. This saving is only realized if complete wards are closed as a result of performing more day stay work. There is almost no science to back up this change in practice. There are no randomized trials of day care against inpatient care and such trials are now almost impossible because of the change in everyday practice. But, by the same token, there is no overwhelming evidence that patients are doing any worse than they were as inpatients but all who practice in this field should bear these concepts in mind. Almost all day stay care is a management driven cost saving exercise that may or may not be beneficial to our patients.

REFERENCES

1. Nichol JH. The surgery of infancy. British Medical Journal 1909;2:753-755.

2. Waters RM. The down-town anesthesia clinic. American Journal of Surgery 1919;33 (suppl):71-73.