Surgeries cancelled due to equipment failure from 2017 (FOI)

​​​​Request

Please advise how many times have surgeries been cancelled due to equipment failure at Jersey General Hospital? 

Please break the data down by month and year from January 2017 to February 2024 (inclusive). 

When an individuals surgery was cancelled due to equipment failure, what was the median number of days they waited for the cancelled surgery to take place?

Response

Health and Community Services’ Patient Administration System (PAS) was replaced in May 2023. The previous PAS (Trakcare) and current PAS (Maxims) have different configurations, and data are not wholly comparable. Therefore, the response is provided in two parts.

Table 1 shows the number of public procedures cancelled due to equipment issues, from 1 January 2017 to 26 May 2023, as recorded in Trakcare PAS. Procedures that are cancelled and subsequently performed on the same day are excluded (these are Theatre movements). As numbers are small, figures have been reported annually rather than monthly (partial year 2023, to date of system replacement). Cancellations due to equipment issues in Trakcare include:

• Equipment failure
• Equipment unavailable / down
• Equipment in use with another patient
• Consultant not familiar with equipment

Table 1

​Data Source: Trakcare Patient Administration System (Report OPT12AA)

*2023 figure represents the period 01 January 2023 to 26 May 2023 (inclusive)

Table 2 shows the number of public procedures cancelled due to equipment issues, from 27 May 2023 through to 29 February 2024, as recorded in Maxims PAS. Procedures that are cancelled and subsequently performed on the same day are excluded (these are Theatre movements). Cancellations due to equipment issues in Maxims include:

• Equipment unavailable or down

There are a number of factors related to the increase recorded over recent months:

• Product recall of key pieces of theatre equipment and availability of temporary replacements
• Improvement in data collection, ensuring accurate reporting when patients are cancelled
• Availability of equipment due to tight turnaround times resulting from increased patients / operations

A project team is currently working to reduce the number of day cancellations through implementation of sustainable solutions to mitigate the need for the majority of cancellations.

Table 2

​Data Source: Maxims Patient Administration System (Report TH003DM)

For procedures cancelled due to equipment issues from 1 January 2017 and 29 February 2024 (where the procedure has subsequently been performed), the median number of days between the cancellation date and the rescheduled procedure was 26 days.​