Delay in surgeries –a prospective observational study at a tertiary care institute of North India

There are a vast range of cases seen in the department of plastic and re-constructive surgery like road traffic accidents, trauma cases, burn injuries, animal bites. Trauma forms a significant part of the workload in plastic surgery. Delays to treatment currently exist and may result in poorer clinical outcomes. Despite an increase in provision of emergency plastic surgery trauma lists, the average wait for emergency plastic surgery is increasing 1.The objective of my one year study was to study the various reasons responsible for delay in surgeries in the department of plastic and re-constructive surgery at Sher-E-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, J&K. It was a prospective observational study. The study was done based on the interviews from relevant informants, study of record and it also included the observations made by the researcher. Interviews were conducted on relevant stake-holders which included: Resident doctors, Patients, Attendants of the patients.Total of 750 informants were interviewed. Main reasons for the delay in surgeries were given as lack of OT time, over-running of theatre lists, priority of emergency patients, in-complete pre-operative evaluation of patients. Other reasons were also given by some like a wrong booking date given or a wrong list prepared. Non availability of beds, lack of resident staff was also a major reason given.